From the Desk of Janet Barclay

Here it is March, and the days are getting longer - hopefully spring will be here soon! Until then, while you stay nice and warm indoors, why not check out what I’ve been writing on other blogs?

OnlineOrganizing.com - Technology as an Organizing Tool:

• Technology for Coaches
• Managing Paper Electronically
• To Scan or Not to Scan… that is the Question
• Be Prepared for Emergencies

Introvert Retreat:

• Workshops for Introverted Students
• Another Workshop for Introverts
• Preparing for Networking Events

You also won’t want to miss my latest article, Tips for Effective Time Management along with guest articles recently posted at OrganizedArticles.com.

I recently asked Karen Silins, President of A+ Career & Resume, LLC and the Association of Online Resume and Career Professionals (AORCP), about her typical workday, and she agreed to let me post the information on my blog.

A typical day for Karen includes the following activities:

• Reviewing and responding to emails
• Calling potential clients to discuss her company’s services (at a time which has been scheduled in advance, to eliminate telephone tag and ensure that both parties are able to be fully engaged in the conversation)
• Answering phone calls from potential clients and setting a time to speak with them
• Preparing for and then meeting with two to four clients daily in person or on the phone (typically a mix of coaching and resume clients)
• Taking care of any administrative activities that aren’t handled by her  Virtual Assistant (yours truly), such as planning website updates and marketing initiatives, or booking speaking engagements
• Writing resumes/cover letters, or other career documents for clients
• Networking with colleagues – sometimes lunch or dinner, sometimes a phone call or email, sometimes online networking such as LinkedIn.com
• Forwarding information to clients, such as links to assessments, questions to be answered, weekly assignments, resources (including book and website recommendations), appointment reminders, and any handouts being covering in the next appointment

In addition, she conducts evening seminars a few times a month.

Karen’s Tip:

With such a busy schedule, in order to make sure that nothing is overlooked, Karen takes time each night to review what she wants to accomplish the following day. She also does this each Sunday for the next week.  This helps her to formulate a plan that she can execute the next day or week. 

Do you have a time management tip to share?

Today being Weedless Wednesday, I have been thinking about the effects of smoking, not on the smoker’s health, but on his or her productivity. A quick Google search on smoking productivity only brought up issues of lost productivity due to absenteeism caused by smoking-related health issues, but that’s not what I’m talking about.

When workplace policies and then legislation changed so that workers could no longer smoke in the office (or other working environments), it was to protect non-smokers from the dangers of secondhand smoke, and that was good.

However, most workplaces allow two coffee breaks and one lunch break per shift. How many smokers do you know who can get through the day with only three or four cigarettes? As a result, a situation evolved where smokers would take a number of "smoke breaks" in addition to their allotted breaks.

This was somewhat annoying to those of us who continued working during this time, and once I even heard a manager threaten to take up smoking so she could get more breaks. So while the non-smokers were working something like 7 hours a day, the smokers were probably only working 6 hours, by the time you take off all the smoke breaks (which, in large office towers, mean waiting for elevators going up and down as well).

On the other hand, a certain camaraderie formed amongst the smokers that didn’t exist among the non-smokers, contributing to team building, which can increase productivity in some cases, but I doubt it would save the equivalent of an hour per person per day.

Photo courtesy of: Marcello eM

People often ask me how I stay focused on my work without getting distracted by housework and other personal matters. I’m such a workoholic that for me, this isn’t really an issue. It’s more a question of "how do I remember to have a personal life when I live at work?" But I realize that for other people, this is a real challenge. I’ve even met people who rented office space, even though they work alone and don’t meet with clients in their office, simply because they need to go through the process of leaving home and going to work before they can get in the proper mindset.

If you’re one of the people who faces this challenge, there’s a great article on Career Journal.com which outlines Five Tips for Staying Productive When You Work Where You Live.

I’ve been convinced for a long time that we all procrastinate in different ways and for different reasons, but I never gave a lot of thought to my own procrastinating habits. Lately I’ve been struggling with keeping my inbox empty - something I’ve aspired to since taking McGhee Productivity Solutions’ webinar, Getting to Zero in Your Inbox, and I’ve realized that the reason I’ve been postponing dealing with some of my messages is INDECISION.

There are so many meetings, seminars, teleclasses, and other networking and professional development activities, that it’s not realistic to try to attend them all, but choosing the ones that are worth my time has always been a struggle for me. Then there are those emails from people who want to get together for coffee or lunch or a meeting… as an introvert who loves working from home because it means I don’t have to go out into the world all the time, those emails are usually met with a heavy sigh. I am always glad when I go out, whether it be for a one-on-one business or social get-together or a formal networking event, but motivating myself to go is difficult.

Maybe it would help if I plan to attend one group function and one one-on-one outing per week, then when I receive one of "those" emails, I can simply pencil it into my calendar and reply right away. Remembering how good it feels to have an empty inbox can be my motivator!

What about you? What causes you to procrastinate, and what can you do about it?