personal productivity

The reality is that few organizations have figured out how to innovate, adapt, and create amazing things without burning their people out.

These were the words of Lindsay McGregor about the recent Amazon work culture expose. The Amazon work culture story has come at a great time. For the last month I have been working on the first draft of a the 2nd workbook in The Leadership Exercises. This workbook is on personal productivity. The title is tentatively:

Bear Much Fruit That Lasts: Insights into Personal Productivity

31 Days Later...
Chances are high that you have already broken your resolutions, and have already given up on some of those goals you set.

First - don't give up. It life was easy, if improvement was easy, if change were easy - we would all be perfect. None of this stuff is easy. It takes discipline, perseverance, and the power of good habits that have been built, step by step and day by day.

Second - failure is not the problem. It is your attitude toward failure. Too many people are afraid to fail, beat themselves up when they fail, and dont' know what to do when they fail. The good news is that every failure can be a learning opportunity.

About two years ago, I was in a conversation with a leader who ASSURED me that email was a thing of the past. Young people were no longer using email. New social media forms were making email a dinosaur.

Well, while versions of instant messaging have grown... there has been no decrease in email while that happened. In fact, there are more emails then ever. Which is why leaders need to be wise about how we use email.

There are so many common mistakes we make that not only lead to a decrease in our productivity, but for others as well.

14 Ideas to Get You Going Strong
There should be almost nothing on this list that is new to you.

On the ohter hand, most of what is on this list is what you need reminded about and which needs to be refreshed in your life.

Personal productivity that leads to long term results, personal fulfillment as you are in alignment with God's plan for your life, and fruitfulness that spills over into the lives and ministries of others, will be dependent on the daily and sustained:  practices of personal productivity.

Start out implementing a few good ideas. Build consistency, and then add some more.

How to Make Yourself EverMoreSo!
This article (click here for it) is not the last word, nor the complete word, and not even the best word. But it is one more piece of the picture and so it is a helpful word.

Generally speaking...

the more effective you are,
and the more efficient you are,
the more productive you will be...

and the more productive you are,
the more needed you are where you work.

Meetings!
You can't get out of them. We need "some" of them. But we can sure work a lot smarter at making them more productive. Here is a very nice article from Fast Company on how to improve meetings and to get much more done in them and because of them.

With the start of a new week, and with meetings looming, try immediate implementation of some of these ideas.

How to be productive during a day of endless meetings.

Brian K. Rice
Leadership ConneXtions International
BrianRice@lcileaders.org

Try It and See What You Think?

Here was a recent article that I recommend and which I also found a little amusing.

The recommendation that I like is to try and wake up Insanely Early to get a great launch to your day.

What I found a little funny was the personal illustration of getting up at 6:30 as the author's insanely early time.

If I get up at 6:30 I am about 90 minutes to two hours behind schedule.

Still, the idea recommended is a good one.