Jeffrey G Causey

Finally back with a new entry and I am continuing my book reviews from the 2017 reading list I put together. This post is all about Juggling Elephants: An Easier Way to Get Your Most Important Things Done--Now!   by Jones Loflin and Todd Musig, which is on the topic of helping you get the important things done now. I actually finished it a while back and am well into the next title on the list, although some personal issues kind of slowed down everything going on in my life. Juggling Elephants is a "fable" type improvement book. Actually, it is almost a fable within a fable. At the top level and used only superficially at the beginning and the end it tells the story of a father relaying advice to his grown daughter who shows up to meet him for lunch one day. The advice he gives is then the fable he tells her about how he learned to get so much done and to always be on top of the important things in life.

Late December and early January have turned out to be very busy, so my plans to put together a post outlining my 2017 reading list has been languishing on my to-do list. No longer though as I have finally found a few minutes to stop and put together the list. Why did I bother to put together a list for the upcoming year especially when I almost always have a book "in progress" at any given time? It was mainly driven by the suggestions on goal-setting that I recently wrote about. One of those tips was putting your goals in writing, so I did that with regard to what I hoped to read in 2017.

Today I came across an article ( 6 Phrases Secretly Sabotaging Your Team's Productivity ) with a bit of an odd mix of information, but all of it was really good. Opening things,  Karla Cook covers some stats regarding productivity killers for workers. This is based on a study conducted by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and their American Time Use Survey completed for 2015 . One of the things that I liked about the information from this study is that it quantifies some truths that we all know.

Time for more productivity tips! You know it is one of my favorite subjects and an area where I enjoy experimenting, so it should be no surprise that I came across an article ( 7 Steps To Getting Unstuck And Becoming More Productive ) with some ideas to help improve your productivity. This is a list of seven suggestions from Michael Hyatt. I've tried a few of these and others I think I've incorporated or tried in some way or another if not as explicitly. In any case, I added a few of my own comments and thoughts. To-Do lists. Well duh. Pick a method you like to use and start working it. I've been a big fan of GTD for years and although I'm currently not practicing it directly, most of GTD is still part of my workflow. I use a modified type of context (contexts is the part of GTD that I find most difficult in this day and age when everything seems interconnected vs when GTD was first developed) and still do things like practice the 2-minute rule. Of note from H...

Came across this list of items to make meetings more productive. I think I've tried just about all of these at one point or another. The only one I really dislike is the standing recommendation - it just comes across as gimmicky to me. I once had a boss who consistently called people to meetings without telling them what the subject of the meeting was going to be or why he was summoning them to a meeting - that really irked me, so I especially try to avoid doing that to others. Do you have any other tips for productive meetings? 10 Productivity Hacks to Transform Every Business Meeting [Infographic] According to Salary.com's 'Wasting Time at Work' survey, 47% of people say meetings are the biggest time-waster in their day. With that outlook, it's not surprising prospects are often hesitant to commit to sales calls and meetings. Reps should pleasantly surprise their buyers by running short, efficient, and productive meetings.

. Came across an article today with the title Trying to empty your inbox is a waste of time . Being a practitioner of Inbox Zero, this of course caused by hackles to raise at the suggestion that a tool I use is a waste of time (though there are plenty of others out there criticizing Inbox Zero). This is not to say Inbox Zero will work or should be used by everyone, but I do not think I have been wasting my time. With that said and after reading the article, I do think the author makes a couple good points that are still consistent with the philosophy of Inbox Zero.

I never knew this concept had a name and after a Google search, I'm still not sure it does. However, "the Unstuck" seems like a good term to use. Do you ever make a big, temporary change to your routines just for the purpose of shaking things up a bit? What is Doing The Unstuck? An overview of doing the unstuck.

I'm not a big fan of Evernote (moved on to OneNote a couple years ago), but if you do use Evernote or would just like to see a model for a workflow using a cloud-based system, this article might be worth a read. Probably only applicable for smaller groups that don't have enterprise solutions deployed. Board Collaboration with Evernote I serve on a board that was recently faced with the challenge of finding a new executive director. This is a volunteer not-for-profit board so the board members are busy with jobs, families and other projects. The time we devote to this board needs to be efficient.

I came across this article the other day about three steps to getting things done . The point of the article was the importance of simplifying our processes and tools in order to achieve better productivity. I certainly agree with that recommendation. Even though I seem to be constantly moving from one tool to another (at least compared to most people), I am always hesitant to do so as those moves always introduce a new level complexity into my productivity efforts - at least until I am back up to speed with the new tool. Back to the article, out of all the possible recommendations for improving productivity, the author chose three as the key to a simple productivity framework.

This article suggests that we need both passion and purpose in order to be our most productive. It is suggested that purpose and passion are two different things with passion being what excites you and purpose being a reason for being. I have to agree that one of our goals should be to "live out our purpose while following our passion." Also noted in the article is having passion and purpose does not guarantee productivity - they just help establish the right environment. Which Is Better: Employees Who Have Purpose or Are Engaged A few years ago, I wrote a post titled " Happy Employees are not Engaged Employees." It remains a very popular post. I received a note about it the other day. I would say employees with a sense of purpose are most productive. Is this the same as engagement (therefore the employee is motivated)?

Not sure how many people may have noticed this, but Google rebranded their office suite last week and added in a few new features. In this article and some of the comments, I find it interesting to see the take on G Suite vs MS Office. I've used/use both. For most everything I do at home, I use the Google apps. I do  maintain a copy of MS Office on my computer for emergency purposes, but I've only had to use it a couple times in the past 6 months. That said, if I were doing some of the more advanced formatting stuff for financial reporting purposes, I'd probably be using MS Office a lot more as that is the area where Google falls behind in my opinion. On the flip side, the collaboration capabilities of the Google apps are much better.

Lot's of fun sounding ideas in this article. I haven't followed all the links to see how well the ideas are supported as actually having an impact. I think the bigger message though is that we need to be willing to experiment and be creative to keep the workforce engaged and productive. 5 experimental ways you can boost employee productivity The old-school, non-experimental attitude in some companies is why the younger generation of digital marketers is disenchanted with work. The resistant attitude of companies to burgeoning ideas leads to a low morale which affects employee productivity. The only way to turn this around is to try out new things.

I am already familiar with a lot of these ideas and I suspect you are too. However, I do like how the list is on the holistic side and brings together some tips from several areas, notably about taking care of your body to maintain peak productivity. It is a quick read. 15 Productivity Hacks That Speed Up Your Efficiency Need to get more efficient at work? Do you ever have enough time to get it all done? If you are struggling to find the time to fit it all in, here are 15 productivity hacks that will help speed up your efficiency. Starting with the chief productivity killer in most offices...

One of the characteristics lurking in my personality according to my Myers-Briggs type is a streak of creativity. I would say that is accurate and probably explains why I enjoy learning new things and activities like writing blog posts. In this article I came across, they suggest that "creativity can actively drive productivity at work". As I also hold a keen interest in productivity topics and concepts, I was intrigued. Laura Cole proposes three ways this is true and why businesses should encourage creativity and innovation, not only for productivity reasons but for long-term business success. How Creativity Can Drive Productivity in Your Small Business As a general rule, true creativity is lauded across the globe. From the iconic Burning Man Festival, which is held annually in the Black Rock Desert, Nevada, to ever-diversifying International Women's Day, there are recurring events that celebrate the innate abilities and the creative potential that exists within ...

I have assessed myself throughout my career using a variety of tools like Myers-Briggs. However, this article from FacileThings is the first time I've run across a similar type tool for assessing productivity styles (although this seemed to lean more toward project management). For the record, I followed the link to the HBR tool and I am a Planner (description below) - although I haven't seen descriptions for the others, this seems accurate based on how I like to work. This seems like it would be a good way to not only assess yourself, but your team members as well to help manage the dynamics of people working together. --------------------------- You are a PLANNER . Planners prefer organized, sequential, and detailed thinking. They create to-do lists, set aside time for tasks, and prepare thorough and accurate project plans. They don’t waste time on anything unproductive or unimportant. They comply with laws, policies, regulations, and quality and safety criteria, ...

Having used GTD for years and a whole host of todo list tools and apps, I always enjoy articles about how we manage our tasks lists. You are managing your task list, right? If not, this article on TimeManagementNinja may cover some things that might keep you from doing that and if you have an idea of what might be stopping you, you can take steps to get on it.

Over the years I've become a big Gmail user and I'm always looking for tips on how to make it even more useful. Just in the last month or so I started using more than just the default yellow star as part of my inbox zero process. This article provides some nice tips on how to make Gmail a more productive tool (and I tip my hat to Gmelius, who posted the article, for putting the use of their product down in the list instead of the first item). Since Gmelius put this together and had a nice recap of what their extension can do, I'm giving it a try. I can say I already like the colorization of the inbox buttons.

Earlier this summer I ran across an article in the Journal of Accountancy about gamification and how it can be used to help engage Millenials in the workforce. I thought it was an interesting take on the concept of gamification, which is a topic I have been keeping my eye on for years. Although the article included some examples that leaned very heavily on game type activities, my interest lies more in the area of gamification being the "psychology of game design" for purposes of improving performance, both personal and for an organization.