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Advice to Employees – and What It Means to Managers

Advice to Employees - and What It Means to Managers

As I go through my days and weeks, I talk to a lot of people. Most, I admit, are self-employed or the owners and managers of small companies. But, of course, I also talk to a lot of “normal” people who have jobs and work for someone else. They work for those owners and managers […]

Know What You Know

Book Brain

There’s a “classic” model for looking at knowledge that’s known as the “Conscious Competence” model. It describes the evolution of knowledge about any subject. There are four stages: Unconscious Incompetence. Here, you don’t know what you don’t know. You might not even know that the subject of knowledge is a “thing” that other people know. […]

Are You Addicted to False Productivity?

Fiber Enter

I love to read. Sometimes, that means online (on a computer), or on a device such as my Kindle. But mostly, I love to read actual paper-based books and magazines. This is due in part to my age. I grew up reading books. More specifically, I grew up reading books with a pencil in my […]

Defend Your Sanity: Make Your Own Zoom Rules

Calendar Dominoes

A year ago, many people had never heard of Zoom. We have been using it for years. In fact, because of various programs I run, my company has four separate Zoom logins in order to accommodate all of our training programs and needs under one account. But the world changed when . . well, when […]

Slow Down, Get More Done

Slowdowngetmoredone1200

This is so central to my life and my business that I had a poster made for my wall that says, “Slow down, get more done.” There are any levels to this advice. The simplest one is that sometimes you are so intent and frustrated in your work that you cannot make progress. For example, […]

How to Minimize Interruptions

Questions

The last few posts have been about minimizing interruptions. Interruptions are literally the single greatest productivity killer in your business or personal life! If interruptions are coming from an outsider, including clients, it is easy to set up rules to deal with this. But insiders (your employees and family) are a different story. You can’t […]

The Interruption Diet

Clipboard

In the last post, I talked about avoiding interruptions. Here’s a great exercise for making interruptions visible to you. Create an “Interruption Diet” like this: Interruption Time Start / Stop Importance Notes Example:Phone Call 8:45 am – 8:50 am Not! Sales call. Grrr. Create a whole sheet like this for each day of the week. […]

Do Not Be Interrupt-Driven

Telephone Call

This is an Absolutely Unbreakable Rule. In both your personal and professional life, you should avoid interruptions. This rule follows from another: Prioritize Everything!. I’m a huge fan of silencing my phone and having it off at all times. With rare exceptions, for example when I’m expecting a call, my phone is off, and it’s […]

Never Stop Learning

One of my favorite motivational speakers is Brian Tracy. If you ever run across his books or audio programs, make the investment. You won’t be sorry. And one of my favorite pieces of advice from Tracy is to listen to audio books. Whether you’re driving around town, mowing the lawn, or just puttering around the […]

Success Is a Habit

Sports Watch

Some people who follow me on social media think I am an unreasonable boss, over-controlling, and that I ask the impossible from my staff. Those who have read my books tend to have a very different perception. I think the main difference is that those who dig in and read a book are more likely […]