You get what you give

I’m in the middle of an amazing holiday in Europe, with just a few work commitments needing my focus, including this blog.  Not too bad though – I’m writing this from sunny Dublin, with a good coffee in my hand! One of the things I’ve noticed over the past few weeks is how few emails […]

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Think about where you store information

We have so much information to manage these days, and it can be hard to work out where to put it all. Most of us default to keeping our emails in folders in our mailbox, and documents in folders on our computer. This is fine in most circumstances. However, it can be frustrating for your […]

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Make reply all a nuclear option

I was running a workshop recently in a large financial institution when three of the participants started talking to each other in whispers. This went on for a few minutes, and they eventually shared with the group that someone in their wider team had sent an email to the entire group of three hundred. People […]

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Do you trust your inbox?

I spoke to a friend recently, who mentioned her struggle with saving useful information and research she found online. Typically, she would come across a useful article or fact, and then not know what to do with it. I suggested doing what I do. When I come across something interesting online, I will email the […]

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Do it right the first time

Like most people with full schedules, I have lots to get done and precious little time to get it done in. I get frustrated when my time is unnecessarily wasted by other people, because the opportunity cost for me is huge. I recently bought a new laptop, visiting the brand’s flagship store to pick it […]

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Get specific when you delegate

Just the other day my partner delegated something to me, but unfortunately did not get the result she wanted. She showed me a bottle of laundry conditioner – Fluffy to be exact – and asked me to buy some when shopping for dinner. I made a note of this on my phone, so I didn’t […]

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Find a way to love your work and your job

I talked to a client recently about his workload. He was telling me his typical day on the job would start around 6.00am most mornings. With back-to-back meetings to look forward to, this was the only time he could deal with the 400-500 emails he received every day. While I hear versions of this story […]

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Value your time

I turned fifty recently. I know – hard to believe when you look at me! I reckon I’ve done OK. I’m still fit and have kept most of my hair. Some say I may be getting delusional, but I’m not sure why. Anyway, turning fifty reminded me of a sobering and somewhat shocking exercise a […]

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The five-finger meeting evaluation

There is an old joke about meetings that I quite like. Not all meetings are bad – some of them are cancelled. Harsh, but funny. I write a lot about meetings in my new book, Smart Teams, and believe we can all get better with how we organise, run and attend meetings. But meetings are […]

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Focus your inbox

Most of us don’t like change, me included.  Anything that turns my comfortable world upside down is always unsettling. Especially when the change affects one of my favourite productivity tools – Microsoft Outlook. Anyone using Office 365 in their workplace will no doubt be used to regular updates from Microsoft.  Most changes are tweaks that […]

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