The Most Common Drug in the Workplace

 

Does email boost or hinder your performance? It all depends on how you manage it.

 

Email offers countless ways to save time and be more productive, but when we don’t contain it, our attention becomes fragmented. When attention is constantly shifting over to email, our ability to focus on work and perform really suffers.

 

In 2005, a psychiatrist at King’s College in London administered IQ tests to three groups: the first did nothing but perform the IQ test, the second was distracted by email and ringing phones, and the third was stoned on marijuana. Not surprisingly, the first group did better than the other two by an average of 10 points. The emailers, on the other hands, did worse than intoxicated people by an average of 6 points.[1]

 

Yet, in a recent survey of 320 professionals, 17% check a few times per hour and 68% check email more or less continually – constantly breaking their focus on the primary task at hand.

 

There’s a very good reason that “crackberry” was declared the 2006 Word-of-the-Year by Webster’s New World College Dictionary. Blackberry addiction has become a cultural phenomenon.

 

For a list of 13 strategies to optimize your email usage, and to read the rest of my recent article on this, click here.

 

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[1] Source: “Can’t Get No Satisfaction,” New York Magazine, Dec. 4, 2006

 

How to Learn More in Less Time

 

Information overload is a major threat to productivity, so whenever I discover a resource that makes it easier to navigate in the Information Age, I like to pass it along. Today I have two.

 

Soundview Executive Book Summaries

 

If you and your team could read all of today’s best business books, you’d be flooded with great ways to solve problems, boost the bottom line and increase market share. But it would be very time consuming to read and digest it all.

 

Staying current with today’s thought leaders in the business world is a priority for me and many of my clients, so I was thrilled to discover Soundview Executive Book Summaries. It’s a subscription service that delivers concise, accurate 1- and 8-page summaries of today’s most influential business books.

 

The summaries are available online, in text, or as an MP3 file. With 30 new books every year, the library is extensive and growing. I listen to them while flying, driving, even working out, and I’ve been very pleased with the way they boil down the information. I highly recommend this strategy for staying current and continuously developing your professional knowledge base.

 

 

Faster Audio Speed-Listening Software

 

If you listen to audio to improve your business and life, imagine being able to learn 2-4 times faster – without decreasing your comprehension. Faster Audio makes it possible.

 

Click on the link to test it out for yourself. You really can listen to someone talking at double speed and not miss a thing. This means we can plow though our audio books, podcasts, lectures and more in a lot less time, and the price for this software is surprisingly low. I use it, I love it and I recommend it.

 

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If you have a tried-and-true productivity strategy, please send it to me. I’m always on the lookout for new ideas that deliver.

 

 

 

 

See Our Charity Event on the News

As many of you know, my longtime friend Richard Deacon and I coordinate “A Night of Giving Back,” an annual charity event to benefit less fortunate people on the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver.  

This year the local news caught us in action. To see a fantastic video clip, click here.  

There is a massive need for support like this – compassionate, unconditional, need-based giving to people in very difficult situations. A number of us walked away saying, “Wow – we see how much this helps, and we need to do a lot more next year.” Instead of the 500 packages we distributed this year, we’re planning to do thousands next year. If you’d like to help, please contact me.

Excellent Strategy to Increase Productivity

One of my best productivity strategies is one that I picked up from reading an interview with Bill Gates; he discussed the benefits of working with two or three computer monitors on your desk. I’ve been using this technique for several months now, and I would never go back to using only a single screen.  

I use one screen for my calendar and database, a second screen for Outlook, and the third as my primary work zone: Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Internet access.  Every time I recommend this, people think I’m crazy… but then they try it and come back to me saying, “I don’t know how I ever worked on one screen!” 

It’s very easy to set this up on a desktop; it just takes another video card and monitor. I also did a bit of research to find out how to set this up on a laptop. The second screen can just be plugged into the “video out” port (often used for a projector). For a third screen on a laptop, you need to purchase the Villagetronic VT Book card, which fits into the PC slot of the laptop. This third screen is 99% functional; sometimes you have to manually refresh the screen, but not often. 

I highly recommend this set up for a faster, more seamless working experience. When you only have to shift your eyes for the info you need, instead of interrupting your thought process to click buttons, the results are felt immediately. Try it, and let me know how it feels to you. 

12 Fast Ways to Decompress

Many times, entrepreneurs and business leaders have an incredible number of exciting things going on. Even if they’re enjoying all this excitement, they’re still under a massive amount of stress. If the stress is sustained over time, it can dramatically compromise performance.  

Simple solutions are often the best solutions, so here are some strategies to help you decompress when you have too much of a good thing (or some not-so-good things) going on.  

1. Deep breathing. Take a deep breath. Hold it. Now let it out … slowly. Try counting to 10 as you let out your breath. Feel the tension and stress flowing out of you with your breath. Repeat 3-10 times, as necessary.
2. Self-massage. I like to massage my shoulders, neck, head, lower back. It helps a lot. Even better: get your honey to do it for you! Another great relaxation technique is to tense up and then relax each muscle in your body, one at a time, starting from your toes up to your head.
3. Take a walk. When I’m in the middle of stress, I like to take 5, and take a walk around the building. I also do the deep breathing and self-massage mentioned above as I do so. It’s a great way of letting go of tension and allowing yourself to re-focus.
4. Exercise. This morning, I went to the beach at 5:30 a.m. and went for a swim. It was beautiful at the beach at around sunrise, and the swim was invigorating. Yesterday I went for a bike ride, and the morning before it was a short but refreshing run. Tomorrow I think I’ll do another short run. It really gets the stress out of your system and gives you some quiet time to think when you exercise.
5. Get outdoors. Even if I didn’t do the swim, just being there at the beach, with my decaf coffee (I quit caffeine, remember?), was calming. It’s nice to connect with nature and take in the beauty around you. While you’re there, stretch, yawn, take some deep breaths, and enjoy.
6. Sex. One of the all-time greats. It works like a charm. Seriously. It’s probably the best on the list. (Sorry, Mom.)
7. Take a day off. That’s what I’m doing today. Don’t tell my boss. I have lots of vacation and sick leave saved up, so it’s not a problem, actually. I’m just going to veg out and allow myself to calm down and center.
8. Meditate. You don’t need to be trained to have a short, relaxing meditation session. Just sit somewhere quiet, close your eyes, relax, and focus on your breathing. Try to concentrate on it coming into your body, and then going out. When other things pop into your head (they will, inevitably), just acknowledge them (don’t try to force them out) and allow them to leave, and then focus again on your breathing. Do this for as long as you can, and then take a couple of cleansing breaths, and get up a new person.
9. Read. I like to throw myself on the couch with a good book. Well, not necessarily a good book — a page-turner. Something that will engross me completely, take my mind off everything else. John Grisham works well for me, as does William Gibson. And Terry Pratchett. And Stephen King. Just get lost in their world.
10. Love. I like to spend time with my kids or my wife. Just snuggle with them, focus on them, forget about the world. They are all that’s important, and sometimes I need that reminder.
11. Disconnect. Turn off the phones, turn off the computer, and shut off the outside world for a little while. These things just raise your stress level. Go offline and forget about the online world! You can do it! Except for Zen Habits. That’s the only blog you’re allowed to read when you decompress.
12. Take a nap. One of my favorites. Just take a 30-minute nap, and you’re re-set! A nap is like a restart button for life.

Source:  http://zenhabits.net/2007/04/12-ways-to-decompress-after-high-stress/ 

These strategies can be incredibly effective in the moment, but if stress levels continue to be too high, it may be time to restructure a process, position or even the business. 

Recommended Resource: Video of The Rockefeller Habits In Action

If you are not familiar with The Rockefeller Habits, one of the key practices is for the core executive team to meet every day for 7-12 minutes; then the executives meet with each of their teams for 7-12 minutes, and those people then meet with their team for 7-12 minutes so the whole company gets aligned and focused each morning. These meetings can either cascade down (like I just explained) or cascade up.  

For those of you who already do daily huddles/meetings (as recommended in The Rockefeller Habits methodology), you’ll enjoy this brief video of a Vancouver company that mastered the daily meeting format. Watch how incredibly powerful this technique is in getting the whole business aligned as a highly productive, laser focused team. You will be amazed that this meeting lasts only 7 minutes. If you haven’t introduced these meetings into your business, this video will show you why this is a highly recommended strategy for companies that are or want to be growing fast. (By the way, how would you feel if your competitors started doing these meetings on a daily basis?) 

If you want to know more about these meetings, please ask me or read about it in Verne Harnish’s book, The Rockefeller Habits. 

Introducing SGI Associate Coach Jeffrey Kearney

Jeffrey Kearney is a talented and committed coach who helps leaders and their teams build greater accountability in a rapid-growth environment, resulting in sustainable profits and great work environments. His background includes 10 years as an executive; he was the vice president and partner of Radical Entertainment Ltd., a Vancouver-based video game developer with 200+ staff. Before the company was sold to Vivendi Universal, his partnership team led Radical from bankruptcy in 1998 to “Best Place to Work in B.C.” in 2002 (Watson Wyatt/BC Business Magazine); it was also voted one of “Canada’s 50 Best Run Privately-Owned Companies” (Globe & Mail survey). Jeffrey has consulted and coached leaders and teams in many industries, including high technology, military manufacturing and television production. The Rockefeller Habits have been a key tool in his work with clients, and he has already proven to be a powerful addition to SGI Synergy Group. For more information on how Jeffrey can help you and your company with the Rockefeller Habits, executive coaching or other needs, please e-mail Janice Watkins (Janice@CoachKevin.com).

Why do people love to reinvent the wheel?

  It never ceases to amaze me how people continually reinvent the wheel in their business when if just isn’t necessary.  Can I tell you how many times I’ve had a conversation with someone looking to solve a problem, implement a system, build custom software, or tackle other challenges by looking to build a solution from scratch?

The Magic of Asking the Right Questions

 It never ceases to amaze me the incredible information and data you can get just by asking your customers or your employees a few really good questions.  Interestingly, I find that employers rarely ask their employees these simple questions. 

The Power of the Daily Huddle

If you are at all familiar with the concept of doing a daily huddle, you know that the concept is very simple and makes sense, however, it may seem like a cumbersome or time consuming thing to do.  The daily huddle is a group meeting with every individual in your company.