Posted by Paige Webb on Tue, Apr 12, 2011 @ 12:05 PM
By: Jennavieve Joshua
Picture this: an old time variety show performer. It’s the hyper little guy with the spinning plates. He starts with one plate placed carefully on top of a 3 foot high skinny pole and starts it spinning. The background music is melodic. Then he starts another spinning plate. Ok, no big deal. Then another. Still no big deal. The background music is much faster now. He adds yet another plate. But by the end of his act, the background music is frantic and he’s got TWENTY plates spinning at one time and none of them are crashing. Now, that’s a big deal! But his act is only five minutes long. You can’t live that way.
Living life twenty-spinning-plates at a time may give us a great sense of accomplishment. But the joy factor is low. We often confuse busy with real-value. As a minister, I have had the honor of coaching many people through the last weeks and days of their lives. The precious lesson I learned first hand, is that none of them speak of their bank balances or accomplishments; they talk about the joyful memories that warmed their heart. We must make time for joy, just like we make time for work.
How can we do that? One very helpful tip is to ask yourself before you pick up that next plate: Is this really nessesary? Is this an over-creation? Does this really add to the wholeness and quality of my life? If I just leave that plate on the stack, what will happen? What really matters to me right now?
How can you create the outcome of Living the EDGE? Less plate-spinning equals more time for joy which equals more sweet moments to cherish all through the show and at the end of your act!
Gilbert Tuhabonye gave us some inspiration to live a life of joy in his presentation at TEDxAustin this year: http://youtu.be/kie6ArWL8Ug. Enjoy!
Posted by Paige Webb on Thu, Apr 07, 2011 @ 10:12 AM
By: Robertt Young
With the advent of the iPhone 3G, the iPhone joined the business world as a truly business-friendly device. When we use something as feature-rich as an iPhone, we sometimes allow the tool to do the thinking for us, and we let it take over our lives.
When the iPhone first came out I just had to have one, but I ended up waiting a year. When I finally made the purchase, I was really happy with all the things it could do: the clarity and size of the screen and the brightness of the colors, the ability to see web pages just the way they were out on the world wide web. I could carry the iPhone in my pocket because it was light and thin. I was happy… until my iPhone finally connected to the e-mail Exchange Server! It started downloading email while it was in my pocket. There were sounds and vibrations going off for each new email being downloaded.
I ended up having to take it out of my pocket and watch helplessly while the ringing and the vibrations continued. As soon as it stopped I checked the settings and found the culprit. I turned off the e-mail notifications by going to the Home Screen and tapping Settings, then I tapped Sounds and scrolled down to New Mail and tapped Off. This felt so good...it was just like turning off the e-mail notification pop up in my desktop e-mail account. Whew! Relief.
Now, I am no longer distracted with each new e-mail that arrives in my inbox on the iPhone. I am back in control over my e-mail. One other thing I did was to set the sent mail option to off. That prevented sent messages from being held in the iPhone, which I found was slowing it down. I was noticing the battery life was not lasting as long as I liked and I read somewhere that when the iPhone pushes email it does so on a regular basis and causes the phone to work harder.
This brings up Push vs. Pull. I thought I might want to change the setting so that I only get mail when I need to process it. I turned off the Push feature on e-mail by going to Settings, then I tapped on Mail, Contacts, Calendars, then near Fetch New Data I tapped on Push and it allowed me to turn it off. Once I did that the only time I got email was when I went to my inbox and opened it. It then began to download what was waiting for me on the server.
Now, I am totally happy and feel completely in control of my day, and the information I have to manage! Consider how these small settings could change the way you work and live!
Posted by Kristi Willis on Fri, Apr 01, 2011 @ 05:29 AM
By: Kristi Willis
How high is the price your team pays for keeping old stuff? Keeping things we don’t need bogs us down – taking up valuable space and wasting our time when we need to find something important. There is also a dollar value attached to all of the stuff we keep. Have you ever considered how much it costs to keep excess paper or electronic documents?
I recently worked with a company that was evaluating a bid for tens of thousands of dollars to increase their electronic storage capacity. During the discussion, an IT manager suggested that they ask everyone in the company to purge unnecessary documents first. After two weeks of their clean up campaign, the company had recovered enough storage to last them for another two years and saved that money for a more productive venture.
Another client was paying over £100,000 each year for a storage facility for old paper files. During the economic downturn, they were examining cost-cutting measures and began questioning what was being stored for such a large fee. A team of volunteers spent a day at the warehouse looking through boxes and kept 5 of the first 200 examined. Money was tight, jobs were on the line and important funds were being allocated to store old file boxes of useless data.
How can your team avoid the high price of storage? An annual file clean out day is an easy way to purge old data and ensure that you aren’t wasting valuable space.
- First, discuss as a team your priorities and compliance guidelines for what to keep and what to discard.
- If the data is out of date or older than allowed by retention polices than it should be thrown out or deleted.
- If the data is out of date, but needed for historical reference, then store it in archive files. For electronic documents this could mean burning them to a CD or storing them on an external drive.
- Assign team members to examine all paper and electronic files. You can assign people to cover a topic area (electronic and paper) or divide the team up so that one group tackles paper and the rest tackle the electronic filing.
- Only keep paper and electronic files of the most important documents. Unless you have a valid business reason, don’t keep hard copy duplicates that can become quickly out of date.
- Have fun! Some of our clients make clean up day a friendly competition with the team that discards the most winning some sort of prize. Let everyone dress casually (it’s dirty work), order in lunch and enjoy a day of getting rid of the old, unnecessary information.
A one day investment can save your team valuable productivity and dollars throughout the year.
Posted by Shea Larson on Mon, Mar 28, 2011 @ 03:26 PM
By Angela Ware
Our workforces are rapidly changing due to the ever shifting influx of technology. With these changes we can find ourselves losing sight of the intangible assets and often seamless impact of the human nature working within our organizations.
With all of the advances in technology, it is still the people within our organization that determine our outcomes. It is also the diversity of the people that allows for a variety of ideas and solutions needed to create and put new technological advances into practice. Managers and supervisors who allow themselves to see the true value of his or her team, sees that binding good people with good technology yields results beyond expectation. Success is only limited by degree to which it is cultivated.
Here are four tips for cultivating success when using and or introducing new technology:
- Explain the reason and purpose behind the technology in advance of it's roll-out (Don’t surprise them or keep them in the dark.)
- Discuss the learning curve that comes with trying anything new. (Let your team know that a small dip in productivity is normal when you try something new.)
- Provide quality training regarding the technology. (Don’t just throw them in the deep.)
- Keep an open mind and an open door for questions and additional answers. (If they can’t ask a question; they can’t yield you quality results.)
Posted by Paige Webb on Tue, Mar 22, 2011 @ 09:34 AM
By: Paige Webb
Interruptions come in many forms, and the "hallway drive-by" is near the top of the list for prohibiting productivity and heads-down focused work. Don't get me wrong, I'm a social butterfly and reformed drive-by culprit. With the lessons learned at The Effective Edge, I've experienced that it's best to manage communication with your team in other ways, so that everyone is successful in their roles and responsibilities.
According to Basex, most professionals waste 2.25 hours daily dealing with interruptions and refocusing after each. Not only is time wasted, but energy is drained in the process. Here are my tips for saying "no" to drive-bys, and improving your energy and productivity:
- Create a task list with a category for "Team." Every time you think of an item you need a response to or feedback on, add it to the list with the individual's initials in the subject line. Plan for a time to chat or book a 1:1 on the calendar. You can consolidate your conversation with 3-4 topics versus one-offs over and over again. I use this example in class often. This is another way to reduce the number of e-mails you send (for every one, expect 5 in return!!).
- If you have a drive-by vulture that constantly circles you, be proactive and request a 1:1 meeting with the person. In the meeting, communicate your expectations about streamlining communication. Emergencies and 2-minute questions can be handled as needed, but as questions mount up, save them for the 1:1, or request a 15 minute quick meeting or call to resolve. Be respectful of each other's time.
- Cube walls are only so thick, and talking through them to your neighbor counts as a drive-by. Instant messenger has been implemented across many organizations. Although it can be a HUGE productivity zapper, it helps eliminate the cube chatter. Set the expectation for cube talk and instant messenger conversations for the 2-minute rule and emergencies only.
If you are a Getting the EDGE alumni, you should be moving towards using the ..Team category. Here is how it all lines up:
Conquer interruptions, increase your focus time. Go home with more items crossed off your list and with more energy. Go forth and be productive!
Posted by Kristi Willis on Mon, Mar 21, 2011 @ 02:31 PM
By Kristi Willis
I am a techie and, like many of our clients, I am very “connected” which means I have information coming at me daily from many different outlets. Some days, I’m able to manage it effectively and other days I feel like I’m being bombarded at the "Battle of the Bulge."
Today, I sat down and listed all the places from which I receive information both professionally and personally.
Professional:
- e-mail
- Instant messenger/chat
- text messages
- phone calls/voice mail
- paper in tray
- LinkedIn
- Google Reader (blogs and websites I follow)
Personal:
- e-mail
- Instant messenger/chat
- text messages
- phone calls/voice mail
- paper in tray
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Reader (blogs and websites I follow)
That’s 14 locations! No wonder it can feel overwhelming. If I go a day without checking one of the locations with heavier traffic (like e-mail or Google Reader) it can take me a full day to recover.
So, how do you stay connected without feeling overwhelmed and buried?
First, I never “sit” in any collection point like e-mail or Google Reader otherwise, I will get stuck there. And for goodness sakes, don’t sit in Twitter – you’ll never dig out. Turn off all your notifications so you don’t get pulled in to those collection points unnecessarily.
Instead, I empty my collection points periodically using the 4Ds (Delete/File, Do It, Delegate It, Defer It). If I find something in Google Reader that I need to act on, I forward it to my work e-mail so that I can add it to my Actions. If I receive a task through a chat conversation, I copy that into a new task so that I don’t lose that action when I close the chat window.
I have an informal emptying schedule that I’ve developed. Each morning at the house, I empty my personal collection points and forward the Action items. When I get to work, I do the same. Five more times during the day (mid-morning, before lunch, after lunch, mid-afternoon and at the end of the day), I repeat this process for my work collection points. During lunch and in the evening, I repeat the process for my personal sources. With this schedule, I can stay current and not spend an overwhelming amount of time in any collection point.
I also have set up the collection points that I check less often, like LinkedIn and Facebook, to e-mail me when I receive a direct message from someone. This helps me stay active with those collection points without having to directly visit them every day.
Finally, I recommend getting a good set of tools. I was struggling to keep up with the work and personal blogs that I follow until I started using Google Reader which consolidates all the new posts for me in one place. I was also drowning in Twitter messages, so I downloaded the application Tweet Deck to help me organize those messages into columns, separating the messages I care about most from the ones that aren’t as important to me.
With a little discipline and some strong tools, you can use being highly connected to your advantage instead of letting it overwhelm you.
Posted by Paige Webb on Fri, Mar 04, 2011 @ 03:22 PM
By: Paige Webb
I am in the throws of a home improvement project and a backyard overhaul project. No small feats, but my dad is a highly-skilled carpenter and craftsman, and I have his help. I also outsourced the backyard so as to salvage my physical well-being. No one likes to sit at a desk or teach a workshop with sore muscles!
This brings me to the reason why, by Gowalla standards, I should be the "Mayor" of the Home Depot in Southwest Austin. I'm in and out of there quite frequently, and I always take a list (typically a mind sweep of items), and I always stay within my budget when I do so. The Effective Edge taught me about the list part, but the budget part, I figured out on my own. I should heed my own advice when I walk into Target. That place is a budget danger zone without a list!
I recently spent a Saturday contributing to the project my dad is helping with, and alas, another trip was necessary to my second home (depot). I sat down to make the list and here are the actions that followed:
- Dad: "Paige, what are you doing? No need for a list, I have this down. I know what we need. I do this all the time."
- Paige: "Are you sure? I don't go there without a list."
- Dad: "Fine." [rattles off what we need]
- I take the list on our trip, but leave it in the truck on accident.
- We shop for an hour without the list.
- We arrive at the checkout with lumber and materials.
- Paige: "Did we forget anything?"
- Dad: [scans basket, throws hands up, then to his hips] "We forgot the electrical supplies."
- Paige: "Oops. I thought you had this down and you were going to remember everything?"
- Dad: "I'm old and my brain is shot. How am I supposed to remember all of this? Where's your list?"
So, lists can work marvels in your life. They prevent wasting time, money, saving yourself from arguments at check-out lines, and losing your place in line when you have to go the center of Home Depot to find what you missed over the course of an hour. Don't get me wrong, Home Depot is an adventure to me, but I'm ready for my home improvement projects to come to an end soon, and every minute counts! Of course, my gratitude overflows to my dad and for his hard work and help.
"The palest ink is better than the brightest memory." ~Chinese Proverb
Posted by Shea Larson on Thu, Mar 03, 2011 @ 09:22 AM
By Russell Tibbits
During my five years here at The Effective Edge, I have embraced the EDGE system. In all of my experiences, my EDGE system helps me make significant progress on my task list, to end each day at a deliberate and meaningful stopping point, and to feel that sense of success and completion that leads to fulfillment.
The last few months, on the other hand, projects of all types have dominated the landscape of The Effective Edge. A new learning center for our alumni, creating new courses, building two new websites, finding a new web host, purchasing and installing IT upgrades and onboarding new employees, are just a few. As a result, work has been more chaotic and stressful than in previous times. New projects continue to be added, task lists grow longer and more complex. The majority of my days end when I’ve run out of time and not because I find myself at a worthy stopping point. On days, weeks or months like this, I feel like my EDGE system is letting me down.
But after taking a step back, I realize that at different times my EDGE system allows me to do different things. When I’m not overwhelmed by new projects, my EDGE system keeps me focused, knocking out my task list, proactive about IT issues, the learning center and customer support. But at other times, the pace of work prevents this; my task list grows no matter how hard I work, my calendar fills up, and I end the day without that sense of completion.
What occurred to me is that on those days when my task list grows longer and I don’t receive that sense of fulfillment, it’s not because my EDGE system is failing me. My EDGE system is simply serving me in a different way. It’s allowing me to keep my head above water, whereas I otherwise might drown.
In a growing business of the 21st century, not every day or week or month (maybe even year) will go as planned. Setbacks occur, deadlines are missed or renegotiated, new projects mean later nights or work on weekends. But just as every day in today’s business is different, I now understand that a well-maintained EDGE system serves me in different ways.
Posted by Shea Larson on Tue, Mar 01, 2011 @ 09:26 AM
By Zahra Petri
Sometimes it’s the simplest things we manage to overlook, whether it is during the work day or at home. Most people are familiar with the common phrase “dotting my I’s and crossing my T’s” except we often get so wrapped up in a project or completing our tasks that we forget an “I” here and a “T” there. This also happens in communication.
With various new tools and products being introduced constantly, there are that many more ways to confuse, mistype, misunderstand, shorthand, abbreviate and not receive communication all together through “technical difficulties.” Many of you might even be familiar with a string of conversation similar to the following:
Here are a few time management tips to help enhance communication and cut down on extra questions and clarification:
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Consider whether email, Instant Message, text or whichever form you’re communicating in is the best medium to use for what you’re conveying.
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Make the Subject Line (if using email) or first sentence (if using IM) in the text reflective of what Action you’re asking them to take.
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Be specific, concise and clearly state the outcome that you want.
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Clarify any due date or timeline if applicable.
These best practices may not apply to all items you’re communicating, but they can serve as a reference to check in with yourself and ensure you’re being clear and communicating in the best way possible regardless of the content.
Posted by Shea Larson on Tue, Feb 22, 2011 @ 09:53 AM
By Shea Larson
We all have stress in our lives. Sometimes it can be much higher depending on what you have going on in your personal or work life. Throughout college I definitely had times of high stress and anxiety. I tend to hold my stress in my neck and shoulders. My muscles tense up and then I end up with headaches and knots in my neck/shoulders.
I read an interesting blog this morning about stress. It has a stress test that anyone can quickly take. The test asks you to select different scenarios that may be occurring in your life that cause stress (although I could think of a few more that were not on the list). Then it adds up your score at the end and tells you what your stress level means to your health. The blog also has a link to an article from The Washington Post that explained what stress does to your body… pretty scary stuff!
I have always attributed high stress in my life to project deadlines and upcoming tests but after taking this test, thinking my score would be low, I realized that I have more stressful things going on in my life than I realized. I recently graduated, have a new job, a new daily routine and my social scene has changed because a lot of my friends have moved away and we have jobs now.
I go to a chiropractor about once a month and that really helps my body relieve stress. I also recently created a new “before bed” routine (because I needed something to help me go to bed earlier) which includes tea, candles and some relaxation before going to sleep. This really helps me calm down from a long day of work. I also realized that this helps me de-stress but this is not enough. Since one of our goals at The Effective Edge is to lead a more balanced lifestyle, I felt that this would be a good topic to investigate further, so I went in search of more suggestions.
Of course working out is always good. I like doing yoga but I have been slacking lately. Meditation is supposed to be a great one but I can’t seem to quiet my mind and sit still that long. Breathing is another one and a good practice but I forget to do this if someone isn’t telling me (I guess that’s another perk to taking yoga).
The most interesting suggestion I found for myself was music; listening, playing, singing or writing. I love listening to music and recently started playing the guitar and singing. My guitar teacher told me the other day that singing and playing music is something that will help me feel fulfilled for the rest of my life, regardless of what else I have going on. Which makes sense because it is something that is just mine and since it is a de-stressor too, it’s like a double jackpot!!
After looking around for suggestions to relieve stress I came to the conclusion that you don’t need a pill to help you do this (like the new prescription I ran across in my research). All you need is yourself and something that you enjoy doing that is just for you. Whether that is yoga, music, meditation, drawing, taking a walk, or reading, as long as it is something that you enjoy doing for yourself, it will help alleviate stress! Ultimately, making you a healthier person!
I would love to hear what other people enjoy doing to relieve stress or tension, especially during work or while sitting at your desk!?!?