Stress Motivational Speaker Shares Time Management Advice

Since I write and speak on stress and productivity, I’m often asked, “What do you do personally to stay productive?”  Here are a few of the common Q&As.

What are your favorite time management tactics?

I practice (and preach) Big Box Time Management.  it is a concept that helps you feel accomplished at the end of the day so that you can leave work at work, enjoy your personal time more and fall asleep easier at night.  It is simply identifying what you must do in a day to feel accomplished.  That is sometimes a more productive way to refocus than asking yourself, “How can I do more?”  Here is a link to a LightBoard Video where I explain the concept Big Box Time Management.  

What is your greatest challenge when you manage time?

The biggest challenges for me are two sub categories of time management.

* Ping management – How good am I at designing my day so that technology does not interrupt my workflow?

* Opportunity management – How good am I at choosing the right opportunities to focus on?

What about when you just don’t feel like being productive?

One of the key concepts in my new book, Change Your Day, Not Your Life is:

“Motivation is just momentum in disguise.”  

Arrange your day and your thinking so that you can get on productivity runs throughout your day.  For instance, the first thing you do when you arrive at work or return from lunch creates the momentum for the next few hours. Choose your first actions wisely.

What do you do to be more productive?

The first step that I do is to define how I want to approach increasing productivity.  Should I try a new approach or should I focus on doing what I’m currently doing faster or more efficiently? I define this process in this video – Importance of Productivity in the Workplace and 3 Steps to Improve It.  After I get clear on my approach to improving productivity, I run the idea through my P=META formula so that I can get and stay focused and motivated.  Finally, I choose one idea, one change to focus on.  One of the biggest reasons you, I, any success focused person misses their goal is that they are trying to hit too many goals at one time.

I hope this Q& A on how I approach improving productivity is helpful.  If you have a question you would like me to answer, just post it in the comments section below and I will add to this post.  Thanks for being here!