Slow Down

Sometimes to be more effective and productive you have to slow down. "Experts" recommend strategies like multitasking and systems that will allow you to do more stuff in a day. Yes, there are ideas that when implemented will make you more effective and efficient (we train on them all the time) but the notion of slowing down might be one that will help you the most.

Consider some of the benefits of slowing down:

• Your thoughts and ideas are more deliberate and you are less scattered


• You make fewer mistakes


• You are present in the moment rather than doing one thing and thinking about 5 other things that you need to do next (multi-tasking is bad)


• With your slower pace you are more strategic with what you are working on because you have to say "no" to the trivial and less important


• By slowing down you will be less apt to burnout and ruining your health

Sure you might not get as much done in the day. But by slowing down, the quality of what you do accomplish will increase, you will feel better physically and mentally and you might even find some time to stop and smell the roses.

The Pareto Principle Appears Again

Most all of us have heard of the Pareto Principle or the "Law of the Vital Few." According to Wikipedia it is the principle that 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. The principle is touted in business as "80% of your sales come from 20% of your customers." Research again and again shows the truth of this principle-and I saw another one last week that confirmed it once again.

According to the authors of the book, Empowered, research shows that in online social media (blogs, review sites, discussions, networking, etc.) 16% of users generate 80% of the content. The small impact the many.

Bring this proven principle to your day. What if you frequently reviewed your schedule and tasks and identified the 20% of tasks that accomplish 80% or so of your purpose? You would probably work harder to protect those items and insure their completion. They would take the highest priority in your day or week and you would build the rest of your schedule around them-instead of hoping you got time to work on them. You would also work to be more efficient with the other 80% of what you do so you could be more effective with the 20% that makes the largest impact.

Try the Pareto Principle today. You might just find that the few tasks you really focus on can make the biggest difference.

Take Care of Yourself

I am not a big fan of sleep-especially when I am worried, have too much to do and can't get to sleep in the first place. It is one of those things that is necessary that I wish I didn't have to worry about. I find myself saying (and maybe you do too), "If I could get by on just one less hour of sleep, that will equate to an hour of extra productivity. I could get more stuff done!" Unfortunately, that isn't the case.

For most people, we need on average 7-8 hours of sleep each night. Don't cheat yourself. You will be less able to focus and have less energy during the day if you don't get your rest. Dr. Charles A. Czeisler, the Baldino Professor of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School has been quoted as saying, "The general effect of sleep deprivation on cognitive performance is well-known: Stay awake longer than 18 consecutive hours, and your reaction speed, short-term and long-term memory, ability to focus, decision-making capacity, math processing, cognitive speed, and spatial orientation all start to suffer. Cut sleep back to five or six hours a night for several days in a row, and the accumulated sleep deficit magnifies these negative effects."

Short and long term memory, focus and decision-making capacity all seem like important things in our day-to-day lives. If you do any additional research on the subject you will also find that sleep deprivation can affect your physical well being-an increase in illness, high blood pressure, etc. You are the only you that you have got! Take care of yourself first and then go after the rest of the stuff in your life. You deserve it.

Checks and Balances For Your Performers

Statistics aren't always easy to follow, but stay with me. According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, 86% of the people found to be perpetuating fraud in businesses (cooking the books, embezzling funds, etc) had never been charged with a prior offense. Based on their research, they concluded, conducting background checks have "limited value in screening out potential wrongdoers."

In other words, people don't have an internal desire to cheat a company and then go from organization to organization trying to take something that doesn't belong to them. What happens, in many cases, is that there were not the procedures in place to prevent or minimize attitudes or actions that could lead to such behaviors.

While the study focused on money, could we not draw similar conclusions about how people use their time at work? They are certainly having a negative impact on the company if they are not engaged on the right tasks-if they are engaged at all. If you manage others, what systems have you put in place to keep people focused and productive? Most people didn't intend to come to work and waste their time and energy, but if the work environment encourages such behavior because of poor focus or lack of clarity about priorities, well.... you might just have someone stealing from you. Some suggestions to start increasing engagement in your employees include:

• Don't be afraid to ask people what their top priorities are for the day or week. Be prepared to share yours as well.
• The old management principle of "MBWA" (management by walking around) still has value. As you move around, watch how people are working. Think about what obstacles you see or hear that could be removed or minimized to help improve their focus.
• As a department, consider having people keep a time log for a day or week. They don't have to give them to you, but simply ask them questions like, "What did you see that you spent your time on that was surprising?" "Are there items occupying more of your time than you think they should?" "How could I contribute to improving the situation?"

The Big Little Things

You have probably heard the phrase, "Don't sweat the small stuff." Well, it is sometimes the small stuff that makes the difference for something or someone to go from ordinary to standing out. Consider the difference that the icing does make on the cake. How close is winning by a tenth of a second in a major competition? What impact does a simple "thank you" or "I love you" have-especially when your day has been less than perfect?

Here are a few little things that we came up with:

• Send a handwritten note to an important customer, employee or friend. Write a note on the napkin that you put in your child’s school lunch


• Bring bagels or donuts for your co-workers for no reason at all


• Help someone remove their carry on bag from the overhead bin


• Call your Mom and just say hello


• Show up to work 30 minutes early and stay 30 minutes late


• Don't just brush your teeth – floss!


• Clean the snow off of someone else's car. Someone you don't even know


• Smile


• Unload the dishwasher-even if it isn't your day (And especially if you don't know where the dishwasher is.)


• When you meet someone new, remember their name and call them by name when the opportunity arises


• Wish your friends, family, co-workers and clients a Happy Birthday


• Freshen your breath-regularly


• Volunteer for a project at work. Join a committee that doesn't have anything to do with your job.


• Put the toilet seat down, rinse the dishes off after dinner, take the dog out without being asked, clean the hair from the sink, hang the picture that has been sitting by the side of the bed for the last two months and don't squeeze the tooth paste in the middle.

Take a minute and consider what "little things" you can do that will make a difference and then do them. J. Willard Marriott said, It's the little things that make the big things possible. Only close attention to the fine details of any operation makes the operation first class.