Eight Ideas To Improve Your Productivity & Effectiveness
1)
Get right to the point with the telephone caller by saying, “Hi
Susan, nice to hear from you. How can I help you?”
2)
Keep conversation to a minimum — walk your colleague out to your
office door, saying, “Thanks for the info, Jim. Catch you later.”
Take a short turn and return to your desk.
3)
Take advantage of voice-mail by leaving a message after hours when
colleagues are not apt to be there, and avoid a two-way
conversation.
4)
Hand-write your reply on the bottom of a memo and pass it right back
to the sender.
5)
Keep your most critical files right at hand in a vertical file on
your desk, at the front of your desk-file drawer, or in a mobile
file cart at “fingertip” distance.
6)
Create a daily “To Do” list out of yellow stickies placed on a
clipboard. Toss away the stickie as you complete each task, ending
the day with an empty clipboard.
7)
Use the 10 minutes, waiting for a meeting to start, to jot a short
note or read a journal article. You’ll be surprised at how many
pesky tasks you can clear away in 5 or 10 minutes!
8)
When a spontaneous meeting arises try to meet in a colleague’s
office, not your own. It’s a lot easier to excuse yourself from
someone else’s office, when the meeting has outlived its usefulness,
than to ask them to leave your office.
