Brown Bagger
This section is set up to provide a ready-made Brown Bag Session for you to use with employees and/or managers. Use as is, or adapt this information for a general employee group. You may reproduce as many copies as needed.
Improve Productivity to Achieve More with Less Time By Joelle Jay
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mericans today are busier than ever, and this problem only seems to be getting worse. Demanding bosses, layoffs and workload restructuring, new technology, planning, business travel, innovation, competition, and family obligations, all combine to create the kind of pressure that, as one business leader put it, “makes it hard to breathe.” The solution? In order for employees and employers alike to avoid burnout the key is to stop trying to go faster and instead maximizing the time they do have to be more productive. The benefit is that as productivity is increased, people actually work less. If your corporate clients and employees are ready to trade their current frantic pace of work for one that’s more relaxed yet efficient, the following strategies – whether it’s a manager, supervisor or an employee – will help anyone achieve more in less time. Make New Time Rules Fact: We are all operating under unspoken time rules. Financial advisors often advise people to set “money rules,” such as “save 10% of every paycheck.” Money rules help people to be decisive and stay true to their financial goals. For efficiency and quality of life, anyone can apply the same concept to their time by setting new time rules. Here are some of the rules that some successful business leaders have set: • Never open email before planning the day. • Never schedule a meeting before 9 a.m. or after 4 p.m. • Turn off your computer after 7 p.m.
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• Keep your PDA off during family time. • Eat dinner at home as much as possible, even it means working for a while in the evening. • As much as possible, spend no more than one evening away from home per week for a work-related event. No one can do anything about certain business trips – but many of us are guilty of imposing excess hours on ourselves. • Work on personal goals during “your time” and work at “the office.” • Be home in time to tuck in the kids in every night, or at least call them to say goodnight. If you have Skype, so much the better. Would any of these rules work for you or one of your clients? To set time rules, ask the individuals participating in this brown bag session to try this simple formula: v Notice what’s not working about the way you spend your time. v Write down what would work – the way you wish you could spend your time. v Make a time rule that makes your time work well for you. Here’s an example: It’s not working for me to have people walking into my office all day. I would prefer to have at least two consecutive hours a day with the door closed. Rule: I close my door for two hours a day. Time rules, even small ones, have the advantage of being concrete and explicit, making it easier for workers to hold themselves accountable. Once an individual has set a rule, he/she needs to communicate it to co-workers and other business associates. People can only respect boundaries if they’re clear. Said another way, they can only follow the rules if you set them.
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Brown Bagger Power Down Fact: Your brain gets a stress signal every time an email comes in. Power down means to “turn off the technology.” It’s true that the wonders of technology are just short of miraculous, and today’s technology can help us maximize our time. We can use it to transform not just the way our world works, but also the way we work. It can buy us time, save us time, leverage time, and organize our time. However, if you’re not careful, technology can also use up all of your time. Think about it. Just because you can be available 24/7 doesn't mean you should. Just because you can instant message at the same time you’re writing a report doesn’t mean you should. Just because you can perch your laptop on the passenger seat of your car to tap out ideas during traffic doesn’t mean you should. The trouble is not with the technology itself; it’s the abuse of the technology that’s at the heart of the issue. To combat the drawbacks to technology, a CBS news report offered this common sense advice: “Give the brain time without stress, relaxing with family, exercising, eating well and sometimes, just sometimes, ignoring those emails.” In other words, be the one to take control of technology so you can get the important things done and not get distracted all day long. “But wait a minute,” a brown bag participant may be thinking, “My boss/clients/colleagues expect me to be available 24/7!” Recognizing this fact is NOT about ignoring people or shirking responsibility. Rather, it’s about increasing focus to be more productive during working hours. Ask yourself, “Do people really expect an immediate response or 24/7 availability? Or is that a standard I set for myself?” In reality, most people don't expect you to be there 24/7. Find out the expectations from your boss and co-workers and then create appropriate guidelines. When an individual occasionally “powers down,” turning off technology and doing what leads to progress and fulfillment, anyone – be it boss, manager, employee or co-worker – will be much more effective in their efforts. Take a Virtual Vacation Fact: Research has shown that your brain needs time to rest and recover. Anyone will work more productively after taking 2 EA Report Brown Bagger
a break. Just as muscles need to recover from hard workouts, so the brain needs time to recover from hard work. And while it would be wonderful to take a two-week trip to Tahiti every few months, few people can realistically do that! However, it IS possible to take a short virtual vacation as often as you like. A virtual vacation is simply a form of meditation with a twist. Just like meditation, ask participants to close their eyes, breathe deeply, and release their thoughts. To go “on vacation,” ask them to fill their minds with restful images, thoughts, or even music. If they’re worried about falling asleep when trying this on their own, instruct them to set an alarm and tell themselves that even if they do fall asleep, they’ll wake up feeling refreshed and energized. Another option is to combine the techniques of meditation and imagination with exercise to really come away revived and restored. Yoga, walking, running, biking, and swimming have a rhythmic solitude that are especially well suited to resting the mind – although one can get away from stress and frustration with any kind of sport. Of course, the stress relief doesn’t have to involve exercise. A bath, hot shower, even just some quiet time on the couch can all bring the rest that’s necessary if it involves detaching from pressure and stress. Whatever someone chooses, it needs to engage the mind, either by escaping into a meditative state or getting the individual so involved in something else that it’s possible to forget about work for a while. How exactly do virtual vacations increase productivity? They give the mind the space and rest it needs to function at its best. As a result, the virtual vacationer gains a clearer mind with clearer thoughts, which leads to more productive work: better ideas, solutions to problems, and those “eureka” moments that enable people to blast through a project or shave time off a task. Reclaim Your Time Ultimately, gaining productivity by maximizing one’s time is not about what a person should do; it’s about what an individual chooses to do. Take control of your time and watch productivity soar. Stop Making Business Mistakes You’re Going to Pay for Later While the previous section was devised to improve productivity for any worker – boss or otherwise – this section is specifically geared for August 2011
managers and supervisors. Imagine being able to accurately predict what would happen before taking a certain course of action. Imagine being able to adjust course midstream to achieve a better outcome. Imagine learning from mistakes in such a way that you not only overcome the current mistake, but also achieve more success because of it. All of these scenarios are within reach. Unfortunately, few people take the steps to actually do them. How exactly can someone predict the future, harness the present, and use the past as a springboard for success? The answer lies in the art of reflection. Reflection is a way of learning from mistakes and successes in the course of one’s life and in business. It means looking at individual experiences to make informed decisions about: what to do, when to do it, and why it should be done. It’s about stepping back, taking it all in, and looking ahead. Ultimately, reflection brings clarity, and clarity leads to sound decisions. Studying one’s experiences by reflecting on them makes it possible to move faster toward goals instead of having to try, try, try again until getting it right. To a certain degree, reflection happens naturally, but it is far more powerful as a business tool when the manager or supervisor understands how to steer reflection purposefully to make the most of one’s individual talent, experiences, and business knowledge. The Art of Practicing Reflection For business professionals, taking the time for reflection is essential for long-term success. When they’re just skimming along, trying to make a profit, and making all the daily decisions, they’re going through the motions but not really reflecting on them. As such, any business leader could be missing opportunities, trading results for what's urgent (firefighting), working too much, and/or sacrificing health and relationships in the name of something else that’s less important. These are the kinds of mistakes that any business leader will pay for later. A manager or supervisor that mainly just attends to “fires” all day isn’t being reflective. And no one gets innovative ideas by answering emails all day or dealing with one crisis after another. Let’s try putting this concept into practice. Let’s say, for instance, you want to evaluate your company's advertising strategy. Using the art of reflection, try the following: v Reflect for action. Think about any new advertisAugust 2011
Brown Bagger ing you want to do ahead of time. Decide on areas such as specific goals, how long you will test a certain medium, such as radio or television, and which advertising venues your customers typically deem credible. v Reflect in action. In the midst of the advertising campaign, remain cognizant of goals and intentions. Then, see if you need to adjust course midstream. v Reflect on action. After the specified timeframe you identified, honestly ask yourself: What went well? What didn’t go as well? What would you do differently next time? Repeating this pattern will eventually help a business leader learn what he/she needs to achieve a specific vision and goal(s). The Benefits of Reflection How exactly does reflection help someone to be a better leader and have a better business? Benefits include: v Avoiding mistakes. Reflective leaders and business owners are rarely blindsided. They have the chance to weigh options and consider consequences before making a big decision. v Filling in the gaps. Through reflection, the business leader will discover not just what he/she needs to do, but also what he/she knows and what he/she doesn’t know. After seeing what’s missing to be successful, it’s easier to go out and get it. v Thinking quicker on your feet. Many times people struggle with a decision. Should we or shouldn't we? Which way is best? What should we do? Reflection is a stop sign that will prevent “running in circles.” The more reflective one is, the faster an individual can see how each and every option does or does not advance goals. v Learning by leaps and bounds. Reflection is a way of learning that cuts out wasted time and unnecessary action. Anyone who relies on learning-by-doing, has to do a lot before he/she can learn a lot. However, by combining learning-by-doing with reflection, learning is more condensed, and therefore, faster. Joelle K. Jay, Ph. D., is an executive coach and the senior managing partner of Pillar Consulting. For more information, visit www.theinneredge.com.
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‘I Don’t Have Time’ is a Lie!
ou have heard people say this over and over again, “I don’t have time.” The fact is that we all have the same number of hours in each day and we choose what to do with those hours. Our lives are a collection of our choices. Start with these simple ideas to make your life at least a little easier. Remember, that while they are simple ideas, they’re not necessarily easy! Implementing them will require self-discipline just as developing any good habit does.
“Too many people begin their day or their week with no real idea of exactly what they want to accomplish and when.” v Analyze where you spend your time. Develop a simple time log to record everything you do each workday over the course of two weeks. The idea is to get an accurate picture of how you spend your time each day. Where you spend your time is a direct reflection of your priorities. Are you spending your time on the things that will help you achieve your goals? v Plan your day and schedule your day, again in writing. What is the difference? Planning is deciding, in advance, what you will do in a given day, week or month. Scheduling is determining when you will do it. Too many people begin their day or their week with no real idea of exactly what they want to accomplish and when. Writing it down has two great benefits. First, it creates a sense of urgency in your subconscious. Because you’ve written it down, you believe that you need
to get it done! Second, it gives you a chance to pat yourself on the back when you cross it off the list. Are the things you are putting in your plan and schedule contributing to reaching your goals? If so, that’s great. If not, you may want to consider eliminating them from your list. v Make the most out of down time. There are at least two categories of slow time. The first is when you are not at your peak performance level. Maybe this occurs right after lunch or perhaps you’re not a morning person and don’t really get going until the afternoon. Whatever the case, schedule easier tasks for your personal down times. These are good times to respond to emails, sort through other mail, and return phone calls. The really tough projects need to be scheduled when you are at your peak. The second category of down time includes waiting. Commuting or flying somewhere on a business trip are examples. Have something to do: trade journals to read, expense reports to complete or reports to review. Think of all the little, but important, things you can get done during this down time. v Create and maintain a controlled sense of urgency. Orchestra leaders, football quarterbacks, and airline pilots all have this trait. They aren’t in a hurry, but they are committed to everyone starting and stopping at the right time. There is a sense of urgency that everyone must buy in to. The people with whom you work and play will sense it and take their lead from you. You are someone who is in control of your time and in control of your life. “I don’t have time” is a lie!
Source: James S. Bain, MBA, author, speaker, consultant, coach, and founder of Falcon Performance Institute. For more information, visit www.fpiteam.com. 4 EA Report Brown Bagger
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