Is your workplace a “Culture of Now” or a “Culture of When?”
Chris is the star of this episode. As an accounts manager for a busy health food company, he deals with a barrage of calls, emails and orders daily.
He felt the need to respond to them all NOW, since not only does his company pride itself on fast service, but his job description really requires him to be readily available to the needs of customers.
The problem is that Chris was stuck in a Culture of Now. I showed him just a couple of the tactics from my Two Day Productivity Miracle that helped him deal with everything on his plate, but still transition to a much more healthy Culture of When.
Learn How to Stop Putting Out Fires and Take Control of Interruptions
Welcome to the first video in my new Candid Productivity Video Series!
Get the same answers I provide to my top-paying clients: unrehearsed, uncut, and unedited.
In this video you’re going to see the candid answers I provide when I ask people–just like you–a simple question:
“What is the biggest productivity challenge to your workday?”
In this episode, meet Curtis, a world-renowned programmer who knows he fights fires more than he should. I give him two concrete steps to minimize is firefighting ways.
PLEASE COMMENT BELOW:
Are you a workplace firefighter? Do you know someone who is? Tell me your story!
Buried under a pile of email with no end in sight? This one’s for you…
Welcome to the next video in my new Candid Productivity Video Series!
These are the same kinds of in-depth answers my Invaluable Coaches and I provide in my Two Day Productivity Miracle.
In this video you’re going to see the candid answers I provide when I ask people–just like you–a simple question:
“What is the biggest productivity challenge to your workday?”
In this episode you’ll meet Keith, an owner-partner and manager in an insurance agency. He told me he has so much to do that “his head just spins.” He also mentioned that he felt a bit “ADD.” Sound familiar?
His told me his biggest challenge was prioritizing his tasks, but as we drove a little deeper, we discovered a deeper cause for his feeling of inefficiency.
PLEASE COMMENT BELOW:
Know someone who needs to learn how to Power Delete? Are you that person? Tell me about it by commenting on the blog page.
I recorded this video in San Francisco while visiting the corporate offices of my publisher, Jossey-Bass. I talked my editor into working the camera for a quick message for my list.
In this free coaching video, I’ll teach you a about very important Switchbuster.
Some of you who are new to my work are wondering, “Switchbuster? What is he talking about?”
Switchbusters are little tricks and systems you can put into your day to minimize the switches that are interrupting you.
This free coaching video will teach you how to minimize what I call the “Dreaded Double Q”
The Quick Question!
How many times per day do you hear:
“Hey, Dave, excuse me, I’ve got just a quick question…”
On the video blog post I show you how to dramatically reduce the Dreaded Double Q.
For discussion:
How many times per day do you think you hear the Dreaded Double Q?
I was speaking with an executive coaching client fairly recently and he asked me about what I thought about the 4 hour workweek, and I am going to give you my candid response to that. What I told him that I think there are some great, great principles in the 4 hour workweek. I think it’s a catchy title, it got a lot of attention.
The problem is most people aren’t even working a 40 hour workweek! How many people do you know that are working a 40 hour workweek regularly? (And I include your work week time, travel to and from work and time spent thinking about work at home.) How many people do you know that are working in that kind of a schedule?
In my experience in going out and speaking to companies worldwide and promoting my book and talking to people most people are working long…long hours especially when they include the time they are spending thinking about work at home, they are just they are trapped in a never ending cycle. They are working 50…60…70 hours a week.
My suggestion is start with a 40 hour work week. That is the big part of what I do with the Get Time program, because I am helping people make strategic decisions about how much time they are going to spend in a week working.
If you are not taking control of your calendar, if you are letting your week control you, then you are not living the 40 hour workweek. If you make a commitment to yourself that you are going to end work at 5 o’clock or 6 o’clock everyday, but you are finding that there is another task, another task and another task and—well, it just kind of goes on and on—then you are fooling yourself. And starting with something like the 4 hour workweek and out sourcing your work is just the wrong place to begin.
You need to start with yourself with your personal systems. Build a strategy to take control of where you are spending your time and what your most valuable activities are. You need to focus on your Most Valuable Activities. You can only do that if you begin to limit the amount of time that you are working and really become realistic with yourself about the truth of time, how much time there is in a day.
That is why I put together the Get Time Boot Camp. It helps people manage their time and how much time they want to work. It helps to take control of their schedule and take control of the information that is taking…that is flowing through their day. That is what I can help you do. I can help you get the 40 hour workweek or even the 30 hour workweek. I can help you get to that point where you are actually in control of what is going on in your week, instead of letting your week control you.
But have you heard that your productivity is only as strong as your personal weakest link?
You probably are very strong in a few areas of productivity already. Maybe you have great follow-through. Maybe you make an effort to always be on time. Perhaps you have a very organized workspace.
It’s typically for the business leaders I work with to be strong in a few areas. Unfortunately it’s the one weak area that causes their chain to fall apart. That’s why they come to me for helps.
What is your ONE weakest area?
Mastering the entire productivity chain is critical to making yourself invaluable in today’s market.
Allow yourself to continue to operate with weak links, and
you make yourself easier to replace. You decrease the amount of money you can make. You devastate your own job security.
Watch this video, then comment to share what you feel is your ONE biggest weak link in your productivity chain.
I’ve been testing a G1 phone from T-Mobile for the last few weeks. So far I have been very impressed and I believe Android is the phone operating system of the future.
However, I did come across one big “Uh-Oh” regarding at least the way T-Mobile handles the service. If you’re using the G1, and planning to go abroad be sure to contact T-Mobile beforehand to add the WorldClass service feature to your data.
Credit to David M. Goldes, President and Senior Analyst, Basex for sharing this information.
