getting things done

The note above is a scribble one could find in a variety of places around my office. The end of the year allows us to reflect, set goals and think about things we will do differently in the new year. Productivity is very important to me, and I continue to work on sharpening my skills as well as identify new tools that can make me more productive. Here I share a couple of useful resources, tips and ways to boost productivity. Feel free to comment and share others if you'd like.

Delegation is one strategy that can make or break people. I have seen it plenty of times, those that are excellent at delegating and those that struggle so much that it can literally put projects on hold, drive people to unhealthy habits, even hold up an entire office's ability to move forward. I was given a diagram similar to the one above in one of my classes in grad school, and find it to be a good tool to use when analyzing a task list and identifying what to delegate. The four levels in case you can't see them are (starting with the outer most level): Administrative and Routine Tasks, Minimal Oversight, Management or Training Needed, Ample Oversight, Management or Training Needed, and lastly "You". Essentially you plot the different tasks on your list in the different levels on the diagram to help you plan out how you will delegate, what you want to delegate and who you will delegate too.

remember the milk- The ultimate task manager. You can create task lists, have reminders sent to a variety of places (e-mail, phone, instant message) and manage your tasks with a variety of features like maps and calendars. It's free and now you can sign in using your gmail account.

evernote-I love evernote. I personally use it, and find it to be a wonderful tool. You can put your thoughts, ideas, inspiration, and things to remember all in one place. You can capture anything whether your on your personal laptop, desktop in your office or on a mobile device like ipad or iphone. If you see a blog post or article on your home computer that you want to take a look at when you get to work, you can just use the evernote browser extention (that is a little button on your browser) to capture that article and put it in your evernote account. My husband used it last time we we're in borders. He used his camera on his iphone to take a picture of two different book covers that he wasn't going to buy there but wanted to save the info for a later purchase. He saved the pics to his evernote account for easy access anywhere. Lastly, if you want to do a voice recording capture of a workshop or presentation you can save that to your evernote account as well. It's great, and...its FREE!

google chrome- I downloaded google chrome on my personal computer and work computer. It is a great new browser with a ton of productivity apps. Essentially its like free software solutions to presentation creation, task management, appointment organizers and many more productivity challenges.

I have read a couple of good articles, books and blog posts lately with some tips that I tried putting into practice the past couple of months and have found to be very helpful. The following is a list of a few that I have found most useful...

• Do not have your e-mail open all day long. This has made a tremendous difference for me and my ability to get things done at work. I had always just had my outlook open all day long as I did things on my computer. However, when I started shutting it off for chunks of time I got so much more done. It made me concentrate on actually responding to e-mails when I scheduled time to deal with e-mail, and then by turning it off I switched my focus to the next task. 
• Instead of looking at productivity from the "time management" lens, try looking at it through the "energy management lens". Personally I am most productive (in terms of completing tasks) in the morning, right after lunch, and after my work out/dinner. I am absolutely scatter brained between 3 and 5pm. I can do things, but its better to schedule meetings, phone calls, or short quick tasks during that time because I don't have the energy to sit and think for long periods of time during those two hours. Since being more cognizant of this I have been able to be so much more productive with my time. I have realized that even though I may just want to get it done, it will take me twice as long to work on a "thinking intensive" task at the end of the day. It's better that I focus on more administrative quick "mindless(ish)" things, leave at 5 to get a good work out in (followed by a good dinner), and I will be very energized with lots of ideas. Understanding my energy has helped me plot out my day with the tasks that I will tackle throughout it.
• "80% is showing up". We have all probably heard that before, but it didn't make sense to me until I read Tom Peter's new book "little big things" and read his interpretation of the quote. He explained that 80% of going to the gym is getting dressed for the gym, convincing yourself your going to the gym and driving there. Once your there it's easy, the last 20% is just doing the workout. Being someone that needs a little motivation sometimes to get myself over to the gym, this resonated with me. I now tell myself this anytime I have that one thing that has stayed on my to-do list and I have avoided it for too long. I just remind myself that 80% is getting in the mindset to do it, setting aside the time to get it done, and deciding to do it. The last 20% will handle itself when I can do the first 80%. 
• Reading. Plain and simple. I don't know what got into me this semester, but I have been reading more than I had in years. I did a post about a month ago on "books inspiring scribbles" and will probably do another one in January with a new set of books that I have been reading since then. Reading books, articles and blog posts regularly, has not only made me more productive, but it has quadrupled the amount of ideas I have on a regular basis and has opened my mind to a much more advanced perspective on key components of my job like supervision, training programs and collaborating with colleagues.