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Do you conduct or cushion urgency?
In case you haven’t noticed, your team is probably drowning in emails, buried in meetings and struggling to deliver the critical outcomes you and the organisation need from them. Much of the work that comes their way is urgent, and they probably spend much of their week reacting to the latest crises. And while you […]
Read MoreBusy: A story we tell ourselves
Two executives bump into each other in a lift. One asks the other how she is going. She replies “Busy”. It is almost an instinctive answer that we give when asked the question. But we are all busy. I reckon that busy is the story we tell ourselves when we have not prioritised our time […]
Read MoreHow is your productivity fitness?
Professional athletes in sports like rugby, soccer or AFL need a mix of anaerobic fitness and aerobic fitness to excel on the field. Anaerobic fitness is critical to short burst activity, like sprinting or lifting weights. The energy is created by a chemical reaction in the muscle. This is great for a burst of speed, […]
Read MoreThe Holy Trinity of the Inbox
In a recent coaching session with a senior client, I had to give the executive some brutal and honest feedback. He had come to me with a specific problem. My Inbox is overwhelming me, he said. So, we worked on some strategies to get his 8,000 odd emails down to zero. In our second session, […]
Read MoreThe death of email
A few weeks ago, I read a report that Ray Tomlinson, the man credited with the invention of email as we know it, as well as the @ symbol, died at the age of 74. It gave me pause to think about the impact that email has had on our lives and our work. While […]
Read MoreEmail Stereotypes – Which one are you?
Email Stereotypes – Which one are you? I hate to stereotype – except when it provides a learning opportunity! I have recently been struck by the fact that I tend to see people managing their email in just four strikingly different ways. I could not help but label them and dig deeper into the […]
Read MoreIdentify your value
I recently worked with a client to help her to identify what she should be focusing her time and attention on in her new role. The role had just been created, and she had a great opportunity to really define her agenda and what she believed the key priorities to be over the next few years. Most […]
Read More5 Ways to Remember What You Need to Do
Do you recall the trick our Grandparents used when they needed to remember something? They would tie a string around their finger. Then, when they noticed it, they would remember the thing they needed to do. Unfortunately, for this strategy to work today we would need a very large reel of string and a hundred […]
Read MoreWatch out for the Procrastination Pixie
My most important priority today was my hardest priority. I had set myself the task of starting a complex whitepaper, which held enormous value but needed some deep thinking and writing. I had a couple of meetings in the morning, and a few emails to send, but had blocked some time over the lunch period […]
Read MoreThe power of a weekly plan
If you are a busy executive, you probably spend some time planning the week ahead. Most of us have a Friday or Sunday ritual that helps us get our head around what the week in front of us has in store. Unfortunately, because we are so busy, most of us don’t spend enough time on […]
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