How Do You Limit Technology's Intrusion on Your Productivity?

You discovered your productivity trigger and transformed your first hour to be more productive. The third question to answer as you increase sales and achieve greater productivity so you leave the office earlier to do what you love with those you love is this:

How do I limit technology's intrusion on my productivity?

Marilyn vos Savant says,"Working in an office with an array of electronic devices is like trying to get something done at home with half a dozen small children around. The calls for attention are constant."

Technology intrudes with a creep, then leaps onto the stage of our productivity; seizing the starring role. Greater productivity is essential to your Work Positive lifestyle which means you daily recognize the creep and create boundaries that limit it.

You're in a team meeting. Your desk phone rings. Do you read the Caller ID and decide about answering?

You're working on your computer on an important project. Is your e-mail open? Is it set on automatic?

What if you're with a customer and your smartphone buzzes with a call? Do you take it?

Multi-tasking is a productivity buster. The myth is you do more. The reality is you do less and what you do get done is less well.

Here are three actions to take today to increase your productivity and limit technology's intrusion:

Establish Technology Schedule

Set up specific times when you employ various technology. Answer email on a schedule-a certain block and time yourself. Turn off the automatic updating feature on your computer and smartphone's email. Forward requests best answered by a team member. Listen to voicemails and return calls on a schedule.

Engage Selectively

Your phone may be smart, but you're not when selecting how to engage. Social media is a marvelous relationship-building tool. Use it. Monetize it.

But do you really need a notification when someone wants to connect on LinkedIn? Or, updates their status on Facebook? Or, tweets a rant about an airline?

Engage selectively with those in your primary sphere of influence. Clients, team members, and family members are top drawer. The rest are also-ran's for your attention.

Your productivity is at stake. Want to increase sales and get out of the office earlier? Create boundaries with your smartphone with categories for interaction. Engage selectively.

Execute with the "OFF" Button

You pay for technology services. They are to serve you, not vice versa. Turn them totally off at designated times to innovate and create. A buzz, bing, or bleep dams up your flow for broadening outcomes and developing a new mindset. Avoid drying up your creative stream by pressing the "off" button.
You discovered your productivity trigger and transformed your first hour to be more productive. The third question to answer as you increase sales and achieve greater productivity so you leave the office earlier to do what you love with those you love is this:

How do I limit technology's intrusion on my productivity?

Marilyn vos Savant says,"Working in an office with an array of electronic devices is like trying to get something done at home with half a dozen small children around. The calls for attention are constant."

Technology intrudes with a creep, then leaps onto the stage of our productivity; seizing the starring role. Greater productivity is essential to your Work Positive lifestyle which means you daily recognize the creep and create boundaries that limit it.

You're in a team meeting. Your desk phone rings. Do you read the Caller ID and decide about answering?

You're working on your computer on an important project. Is your e-mail open? Is it set on automatic?

What if you're with a customer and your smartphone buzzes with a call? Do you take it?

Multi-tasking is a productivity buster. The myth is you do more. The reality is you do less and what you do get done is less well.

Here are three actions to take today to increase your productivity and limit technology's intrusion:

Establish Technology Schedule

Set up specific times when you employ various technology. Answer email on a schedule-a certain block and time yourself. Turn off the automatic updating feature on your computer and smartphone's email. Forward requests best answered by a team member. Listen to voicemails and return calls on a schedule.

Engage Selectively

Your phone may be smart, but you're not when selecting how to engage. Social media is a marvelous relationship-building tool. Use it. Monetize it.

But do you really need a notification when someone wants to connect on LinkedIn? Or, updates their status on Facebook? Or, tweets a rant about an airline?

Engage selectively with those in your primary sphere of influence. Clients, team members, and family members are top drawer. The rest are also-ran's for your attention.

Your productivity is at stake. Want to increase sales and get out of the office earlier? Create boundaries with your smartphone with categories for interaction. Engage selectively.

Execute with the "OFF" Button

You pay for technology services. They are to serve you, not vice versa. Turn them totally off at designated times to innovate and create. A buzz, bing, or bleep dams up your flow for broadening outcomes and developing a new mindset. Avoid drying up your creative stream by pressing the "off" button.

Business Productivity - Does Having Friends at Work Help or Hinder Your Work Performance?

I know you have friends and possibly lots of them, haven't you? These could be at your workplace, in your neighborhood, in clubs and associations etc. A person without friends may not be a balanced person. It's good to be sociable. Don't you think so? Now, what is the importance of friendship in the workplace? How can friendship affect your work performance? Does having friends at work help or hinder your work performance? Let us consider some perspectives.

    First of all, your work performance depends on several factors and these operate in a combination. Your personality, discipline, lifestyle, attitude, focus, time management, prioritization, skills and competencies etc affect your performance. Leadership and friendship aspects including the people you work with are also vital. The resources at your disposal and several other workplace aspects also influence productivity. You need a good balance of these factors to optimize your performance. Friendship is just one factor among the many mentioned above.

    Under normal circumstances, having friends at work should not hinder your performance. Friendship is normal and exists among people in any community. The workplace is not an exception. As a balanced individual you should have friends at work, in your neighborhood, in associations etc. What is vital is how you manage that friendship. I believe you agree with me on this principle, don't you?

    Friends can add a lot of value to your performance in the workplace. When you work in harmony with people you enjoy a good work atmosphere. A sense of belonging results and this boosts your confidence and improves performance. Friendship also enables easy sharing of knowledge, information and advice. Friends also provide emotional support that helps when you are going through difficult times. What about fun at work? You need friends to have fun with.

    There are however situations where friendship can negatively affect your performance. This basically arises due to mismanagement of relationships. Sometimes waste of time and distraction result. Bad friends can also influence you to do bad things. As an example, your attitude may negatively change to your detriment. Occasionally workplace affairs between opposite sexes are triggered by friendship. All these can have very negative impact on your performance. You need to wisely manage workplace friendship to avoid running into trouble.

In conclusion, there are pros and cons of this element in a work environment. Whether you benefit or not from it largely depends on how you handle it. It is an aspect of choice and personal discipline. What is good can turn to be bad depending on applicable circumstances. Haven't you greatly benefited from workplace friendship before? At the same time, haven't you seen colleagues destroyed by the same? The choice is yours, isn't it?

Success Not Guaranteed Because You Have Good Tools

Do you ever start strong on a project and then lose momentum as you progress over time and not really understand what happened? Does this sound familiar?

I'll give you a case in point: I remember feeling confident at the beginning of every school year at every age. I felt empowered as a child, as an adolescent, and as a college student, too, when I had my supplies and books in hand with the year straight ahead. It didn't matter how challenging I anticipated the year would be because I knew I had the time, talent and tools to perform.

Usually by the end of Day One I would have a pretty accurate sense of what was ahead, and after attending all my classes at least once I would be very certain about the year. To my chagrin, however, most years my confidence and enthusiasm would be tempered by reality at that point. Somewhat like the maxim "familiarity breeds contempt," after becoming familiar with what I had to do I felt more uncertain about my chances of success.

Having confidence and the right tools were essential to my progress. Figuratively speaking, having a sharp pencil and new Crayons seemed to be enough. Later, the correct calculators and computers and electronic readers and devices were standard equipment, but even when I had the best tools coupled with the finest resources it was not sufficient if I didn't have the proper knowledge to put it to use.

The best tools alone cannot replace knowledge and skill. It wouldn't matter if I had the best equipment running the best software if I didn't know how to effectively use it. I still was required to study and grow and know how to implement the information I had been taught. I didn't fully understand why I was not maintaining my productivity zeal until I realized why it was happening. I didn't understand the recipe.

My emphasis was wrong. I was putting the horse before the cart.

To be successful and "fire on all cylinders" a success driven person must work hard to capitalize. Staying ahead of technology - no, even to keep up with the trends in technology to be able to advance in knowledge to succeed - requires a continual devotion to working diligently over time without becoming permanently discouraged.

Winning in the world today is more difficult than ever before since we all have so many options available to us, and those options include wonderful tools to support our efforts. Our human contribution to the recipe is the subjective part, and using all the available tools makes the recipe effective.

Having the finest tools in the world does not guarantee success if you don't know how to use them. It's crucial to spend sufficient time learning how the technology and tools work if you want to realize the greatest possible benefit. When you follow the recipe of having the proper tools, persistence and positive attitude, you'll enjoy the success you are seeking.

Applying 5s in a Service or Transactional Process

In a Service Process, the customer is often waiting at a counter, on the other end of the phone call, walking your isles, observing your business. In a Transaction process, the customer is often visiting your website, browsing your products and services, and interacting with technology. Services and transactions interact in today's world with growing complexity. A low customer waiting time can be a competitive advantage, increased usability with simple graphical user interfaces can be the difference between browsing and a sale.

5s is a method used in Lean Six Sigma that has been proven to add value time and time again. I will demonstrate each Step of 5s with both a Service and Transaction process.

Sort - Sort an area for what is needed, when it is needed, in just the right amount. In a Service process, we might sort products on a shelf in just the right amount to meet the customer demand for 1 week, 1 day, or less, while others can move to lower demand areas. In a transaction process, we might Sort the highest demanded products to the users main view, without any distractions to lead anywhere else but the checkout line.

Set-in-Order or Straighten is to setup an area with just the right amount of the items needed to perform the tasks in that area. For example, in a Service process, where coffee and donuts are sold, a setup area for creamer, milk, sugar, chocolate, napkins, stirrers, covers, coffee folders, straws, etc... can all be used by a customer. in a Transaction process, where an application or form is completed, fields would be structured in the order that the information would be entered.

Shine or Sweep - Now that the service or transaction area has had all the low demand or low frequency items moved so that only the high demand items are located, then we clean up the area. in a Service process, we might paint, wash the area, add lighting, clean the floors, and fix anything broken. In a Transaction process we might highlight the area the users eyes should focus, offer examples or help references, remove any clutter that can confuse a user in completing the transaction, and reduce the # of steps a transaction can take.

Standardize is to stabilize with process controls. Visual controls work great, but the best approach is Poke-Yoke, also called mistake-proofing, where the opportunity for a defect to occur has been eliminated. In a Service process, we might add labels, add wheels to make moving easier, setup a replenishment signal to restock supplies, establish a daily checklist to ensure area is to standard. In a Transaction process, we might add input masks to fields, use look-up fields for standard entry choices, use color and visual signals to increase usability.

Sustain the gains is about process control so that continuous improvement will progress versus digress in both operational and financial metrics. In a Service process a schedule and checklist is often assigned across the team, sometimes standard operating procedures are used for training, and metrics are often used with simple red, yellow, green performance scores. In a Transaction process metrics are used too, usability testing with checks following maintenance or updates that would impact a change in a transaction, and performance testing.

Safety, Service, and Security are often checked across all 5s phases. 5s in Service and transaction process save time, rework, reduces defects, less waiting, less searching, and increased sales.

The Dangers Of Isolation For Productivity

While isolation may be the favored environment for maximum productivity, it lends itself to misunderstanding and development of potential problems with co-workers and family. When others don't understand why you are secluding yourself, the possibility exists for unintended consequences. I'm going to tell you how I learned this lesson in interpersonal communication.

Generally speaking I'm a pleasant co-worker. I can get along with just about anyone, and I enjoy being around other people. When engaged with others and focused on a task I do my part to foster a pleasant environment for all. In doing so, I tend to talk and interact in the interest of maintaining favorable working relationships, as well as accomplishing the intended outcome.

When I'm in production mode I'm serious about getting my work done; I know when to "zip it" and it's distracting to me when others won't do the same. So to remedy the problem of being distracted I would frequently seclude myself in my office. It was always a very productive time, and when I was finished there was time for conversation. That pattern, however, became the problem.

I didn't realize what I was doing. It was not acceptable for others to interrupt or distract me from my tasks, but I was inflicting the same inconvenience on others whenever I barged in on them once my job was done. When I was made aware of how inconsiderate I was being, it made an impression on me. I certainly didn't want my co-workers to think of me that way.

As a remedy, I became sensitive to the others and their workloads. It was not difficult to stay away and alow them time to complete their work, or at least to get to a stopping point where striking up a conversation would not be a distraction. As you can tell, this entire event made an impression on me, an impression that needed to be made.

Once this oversight had been pointed out, others around me agreed that I was a frequent offender on this charge. When they began to point to specific occasions, sadly of which I was unaware, I realized that my routine was not good. I didn't know I was being selfish. I thought I was just chatting.

I thought it was easy for others to stop what they were doing, shift gears and focus on what I wanted to talk about, not allowing them the courtesy of being uninterrupted with their thoughts. Once I corrected the behavior and started being more considerate of my workmates' need for quiet, as a team we all were more productive and more productive more frequently.

What's Your Productivity Trigger?

My Grandfather told me stories of getting up at 4:30 a.m. to bring in the wood, put it in the cook stove, and light the fire so his mother could prepare breakfast. A sister gathered in the dark eggs laid by the hens. A brother prepared the pig months earlier. The flour ground from their corn was in a sack to make the biscuits with fresh milk from their cows. Sure they had a lot to do every morning, but if they wanted to eat, this is what they did.

Your biggest morning task is to decide whether to stop by Starbucks or McDonald's for breakfast. That leaves you an abundance of time to do other things on your to-do list that are important, right?

Struggling with your to-do list?

How do you focus on what's most important as you Work Positive?

First, find your productivity trigger.

I found mine as I stood at a family member's open grave. He was young and his death unexpected. As I stood there, my mind flooded with all the times I wished I had called him just to say "Hi!," the birthday cards I didn't send and "just because" notes left unwritten. I cried.

I decided that I wasn't crying for him, but for me. For the lost opportunities-words left unsaid; deeds left undone.

Then a beautiful dragonfly flew over the grave, his iridescent wings glittering in the summer sun. More joined him and I remembered that most dragonflies live only about a month.

As I stood there at that open grave, staring at dragonflies, I asked myself, "If I only had a month to live, what would I do?"

Watching the sandy soil cover his casket, dragonflies flitting about, I decided to do better. I now say all the words, some to people I haven't spoken with in 30 years. I now do for others rather than wait until later. I define success by my clients' metrics.

I pay attention to what is important. I focus on and filter for positive thoughts. I cooperate and complement with other positive people, with no Eeyore Vampires on Team Joey. I trust my birthright to believe and imagine the best in opportunities, while my accountability partners sniff out the trail of my ego and redirect me as necessary. I pay attention to what is important, which leads me to achieve a Work Positive lifestyle. I share my discoveries with you.