Posts Tagged ‘productivity’

Take a Break and Get More Done

July 21st, 2010

TAKE A BREAKWhen life gets busy (and when doesn’t it?) we often feel that we have to put our head down and plow full steam ahead to get as much done as possible. While it may seem counterintuitive, taking a break can actually help you accomplish more, and make life more enjoyable at the same time. Giving your mind (and body) a chance to rest can help refocus your attention and boost your energy as well as help relieve stress and sharpen your cognitive ability.

In their book, The Power of Full Engagement, energy management gurus Jim Loehr  and Tony Schwartz describe the physiological changes our bodies go through when we’ve reached a low point in our energy cycle. While techniques such as drinking coffee or eating a candy bar may successfully produce a short-term energy boost, they’re not a great substitute for our body’s natural cycle of engagement and recovery.

I’ve experienced this productivity recovery phenomenon first-hand. Back in my paper-writing days during college and grad school, I’d intentionally walk away from my current writing assignment for 15 minutes or so and be amazed at the renewed focus and energy I’d discover upon my return to the task. I’d also marvel at the ease with which I’d catch errors that I previously hadn’t noticed.  A fresh set of eyes and a clear mind made all the difference.

Taking breaks has also been shown to be highly beneficial for people with AD/HD. My own experience when working with clients with AD/HD has shown that when they take a short break of ten or so minutes, it breaks up the monotony (serving their desire for a change of pace) and boosts their energy. “Green” breaks during which they look outside (or even go outside) to look at the green grass or trees have also proven to be highly beneficial. A study by researchers at the University of Essex (England) found that just 5 minutes a day of exposure to nature is all you need to improve your mood and self-esteem.

To get yourself in the habit of taking breaks, determine what your concentration limit is and set a timer to remind yourself to walk away from your current project for a while. The length of the break is less important than the act of simply changing your focus for a moment – something as simple as taking a bathroom break can do wonders for your productivity. Maybe drinking eight glasses of water a day (or whatever the experts now say is the proper amount) can have a side benefit of boosting your productivity by making you take a bio break every few hours.

 So how will you minimize the mental field trips your mind takes as you work through your day?

Here’s to your life of simplicity, harmony and freedom,

Signature_Sue

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Posted in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Causes of Disorganization, Chronic Disorganization, Organizing Process, Time Management

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Multitasking Doesn’t Work

June 30th, 2010

MULTITASKINGConfucius once said, “The man who chases two rabbits, catches none” – or something like that. Multitasking is a bit like chasing two rabbits – we set our sights on one goal, then shift them to another while still trying to keep track of the first goal. In the end, instead of completing multiple tasks more quickly, they often end up taking longer and aren’t done as well as if we had focused on one at a time.

I used to think I was a good (make that great) multi-tasker. I could carry on a phone conversation and check email at the same time. Ha – I sure was surprised a while ago during a phone conversation with a business associate when she asked me what I thought of her idea and I realized I had no idea what she was talking about. I was reading my emails while she was talking, and somehow my brain stopped paying attention even though my ears were well aware of the fact that she was talking. As it turns out, our brain can’t multitask, but rather, it switches back and forth between activities, paying attention to only one at a time – or in my case, eventually paying attention to only one thing for an extended period of time.

The New York Times reports that, “While many people say multitasking makes them more productive, research shows otherwise. Heavy multitaskers actually have more trouble focusing and shutting out irrelevant information, scientists say, and they experience more stress. And scientists are discovering that even after the multitasking ends, fractured thinking and lack of focus persist.”

It’s understandable that we feel the need to multitask – our lives are becoming increasingly complex, ironically due in part to the technology that was supposed to make our lives easier. We are constantly accessible by phone, email and text messages help make sure we’re never caught up on our communications, and social media soaks up even more of our time. Our attention is being pulled in so many directions that we feel as though we have to multitask just to keep our heads above water.

Ever since my embarrassing phone fiasco, I’ve made a point not to multitask, or to stop it as soon as I’m aware I’m doing it. I’ve found that when my eyes as well as my brain are purposely focused on one thing at a time I feel less frazzled and more in control. Without trying to sound overbearing, I’d like to challenge you to stop whatever multitasking you engage in, just for a day, or even just for an hour, and let me know how it affects your productivity.

Best wishes for success,

Signature_Sue

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Posted in Causes of Disorganization, Organizing Challenges, Organizing Myths, Organizing Process, Time Management

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Clear the Clutter and Have More Energy – Part 2

May 5th, 2010

electronic clutterLast week I talked about how getting rid of visual clutter will give you more energy. Now let’s consider how getting rid of electronic clutter will prevent your get- up- and- go from getting up and going:

Email, text messages, social media and probably other forms of electronic communication I don’t even know about yet can suck huge amounts of time from our day. While we may think being “connected” 24/7 helps us be more productive, my experience is that it makes people less productive and mentally drained. Now I’m not saying that these additional forms of communication aren’t valuable and useful – I use them quite a bit myself. However, when they get in the way of focusing on the task at hand (“Hmm let me see what new emails I have before I work on this report that I’ve been putting off all week”), they lose their value. And when dozens of back and forth texts or emails replaces a two-minute phone call, we’re exhausted and defeated because we feel like we’ll never get to the bottom of our inbox.

Another downside of electronic communication is that it makes our relationships more impersonal. While it allows us to communicate with more people than we probably could face to face, it leaves me with a sense of remoteness and anonymity because I’m not looking someone in the eye. For people who thrive on social interaction (and we all do to some extent) it can be stressful to have a closer relationship with our keyboard than in-the-flesh human beings. So give yourself an energy boost by stepping away from the screen every now and then to rediscover the effectiveness and satisfaction of interpersonal communication.

Being available via “electronic leash” no matter where we are (including on vacation, when we’re supposed to get a break) means we can never turn off our brain. To combat this electronic onslaught, consider having pre-planned times to check your email (no more than once an hour) so you can actually get some things accomplished during the day rather than constantly responding to other people’s electronic requests. Try establishing a set time each day (e.g., 5 p.m.) after which you won’t check email, but rather give yourself a chance to decompress (I’m still working on this one myself). Similarly, have a predetermined time for checking social media. Be purposeful as you go through email messages and social media postings so you don’t have to revisit items more than once. Your brain will thank you.

So how does electronic media clutter your life and what are you willing to do to change that?

Best wishes,

Signature_Sue

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Posted in Causes of Disorganization, Organizing Challenges, Organizing Process, Time Management

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Organizing Time for the AD/HD Mind

April 7th, 2010

CLOCKTime – you can’t see or touch it, yet it plays a major role in our lives. There are many facets to time management, but I want to focus here on viewing time as something tangible, something you organize as you would any physical space. In her book, Time Management from the Inside Out, Julie Morgenstern gives a great example of comparing a cluttered schedule to a cluttered closet – your day is jam-packed with more things to do than your schedule can hold and tasks are randomly assigned to any available pocket of time, making it hard to see what you have to do in an orderly fashion.

To make your day easier to manage, consider having regularly-scheduled times to handle various categories of tasks. For example, have regular times to exercise, do housework, prepare meals, run errands, etc. Then you can get into a routine that helps you fit all of your required tasks into your week. This schedule (which I call a Time Map) is not intended to lay out the specifics of which exercises you’ll do, which household tasks you’ll do, or which errands you’ll run. Its purpose is to carve out the time for you to do whatever specific things are appropriate on that particular day. It allows you to group similar activities together and easily see what you have to do you (similarly to an organized closet). Here’s an example of a time map:

time map

You’ll see that there’s lots of white space – you don’t want your day so rigidly planned that it feels confining or unrealistic. However, you do want to specify when you’ll do the things you’ve identified as important so you can be sure to get them done. (You’ll find blank Time Maps and other forms and checklists to help you organize your time and life in my APPLES Resource Guide.)

If you find such a schedule seems too restrictive, or fear that scheduling your day will take away your creativity, simply use the time map as a guide to remind you of what you have to make time for each week. Each day you can determine which category of item you’re in the mood to do (e.g., should I make phone calls today or do housework?) and then work on the things that fit your mood. Just be sure that by the end of the week you’ve made time for everything you’ve said was important. Some days you may have to do things whether or not you’re in the mood because they just have to be done. You don’t have to like doing them, but know that it will feel good when they’re done (that’s how I view exercise). Try scheduling those difficult, unpleasant things when you have the most mental energy – for me that would be first thing in the morning.

Here’s to a productive day!

Signature_Sue

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Posted in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Chronic Disorganization, Time Management

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Stop Procrastinating and Improve Your Productivity

March 10th, 2010

ProcrastinationLast week was National Procrastination Week – no really, it was! I’d like to say that I intentionally chose to write about it a week late to drive home the concept of procrastinating, but it just worked out that way. You see, I don’t particularly enjoy writing, so I find plenty of seemingly more important things to fill my time until I can no longer stand the stress of an impending deadline.

In his book, The Now Habit, psychologist Neil Fiore says how we procrastinate is more important than knowing why. By tracking the thoughts, justifications, attempted solutions, and results of how we spend our time, we can link the avoided activities to our thoughts and work towards changing our behavior. Dr. Fiore also identifies five negative attitudes or self statements that distinguish procrastinators from producers:

  • “I have to” (but don’t want to)
  • “I must finish”
  • “This project is so big and important”
  • “I must be perfect”
  • “I don’t have time to play”

The self statement that resonates with me is “I have to”. This thought process makes me feel like a victim who has to do something she doesn’t want to do. To remedy this unproductive thinking, I try to view tasks as things I “want” or “choose” to do. And while I may not specifically want to do a particular task, I simply have to prefer it to the consequences.

While deadlines (both externally- and self-imposed) can be a great motivator, they don’t always lead us to doing things ahead of time rather than at the last minute. However, I’ve found that when I commit to someone else that I’ll have something done by a certain date I’m good about honoring that commitment. I use this same technique with my clients – I invite them to call or email me with their commitments regarding the organizing challenges we’re working to resolve. They typically have better success honoring those commitments than when they’re working on them by themselves.

So tell me, what things do you put off and what do you typically do instead of the intended task? What self statement(s) holds you back? Who can you use as an accountability partner and what commitments can you work on with them? Will any of my products or services help you move forward?

I look forward to hearing from you (unless you choose to put it off until later!),

Signature_Sue

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Posted in Causes of Disorganization, Organizing Challenges, Time Management

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Write Things Down to Get Them Done

February 24th, 2010

Write things downA button from my coat had been sitting on my bathroom counter for the past week – it was there to remind me to sew it back on my coat. Unfortunately, I only saw it when I was getting ready for work in the morning and getting ready for bed in the evening. I didn’t have the time or energy at either of those times to take on this straightforward task. So there sat my button, and there I was with my coat flapping in the wind where the button should have been. Recognizing that my “keep it out to remind me” system wasn’t working, I broke down and wrote “sew button” on my calendar.

 Although I counsel my clients to write their to-dos on a master list or right on their calendar, sewing on a button seemed too insignificant to warrant such a “formal” step. Yet as I plowed through my task list yesterday and came across my simple reminder, I marched up the stairs to my sewing supplies and sewed on that pesky button. There was something powerful about making a commitment to do it at a particular time – it represented a pledge to myself to get it done. I also saw the reminder when I had time and energy to act on it.

 I encourage you to move your intentions to commitment by writing them down on a task list or calendar. Get all those random thoughts out of your head and clean up those “reminder” piles by committing to paper or your electronic reminder system what you need to do and when you’ll do it. I’d love to hear what to-dos you’ve been carrying around in your head or tossing into a pile, and when you’re willing to commit to getting them done.

Best wishes,Signature_Sue

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I’m Looking Forward to Turning Your Piles into Smiles!

December 15th, 2009

LOGO_small_RHi, I’m Sue Becker – I’m a professional organizer who’s been helping people organize their homes and offices and manage their time since 2000. Actually, I’ve unofficially been helping people get organized for most of my life; I began From Piles to Smiles® when I discovered that the key to my success in life was organization and I wanted to help the rest of the world discover that same sense of freedom. In fact, I was asked to co-author the book Conversations on Success to tell others the secrets of my success. I have helped thousands of clients—stay-at-home parents, employees in office buildings and home offices, entrepreneurs and students alike—by providing them with the tools and guidance to organize their homes and offices, simplify their lives and feel in control instead of helplessly overwhelmed.

I work side by side and over the phone with people to help them overcome the sense of overwhelm that comes with being disorganized. Together, we develop organizational systems to eliminate the causes of the disorganization and create strategies to stay organized. I help people get organized at home, de-clutter their offices, manage their time and increase their productivity. In addition, I’ve created several products to help people get and stay organized.

 I also speak about organizing and time management to a wide variety of groups: service clubs, parents’ clubs, support groups, small businesses, and Fortune 100 companies. My preparation for these speaking engagements helps me stay current on the issues facing organizations and individuals, as well as the latest tools and techniques to overcome their organizing challenges.

 I’m looking forward to helping you get organized by providing information on a variety of topics related to organizing. To make this blog as helpful as possible, I’d love to hear from you. What is your biggest organizing challenge?

Warmly,

Signature_Sue

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