Elevating Performance, Quality, & Fulfillment at Work

Elevating Performance, Quality, & Fulfillment at WorkPrinciples and practices for dealing with demands, tasks and opportunities coming at you with focus and relaxation.

Our world has changed dramatically over the past 25 yearsWe need to learn how to work and live in the 21st century.

We need new thinking regarding performance, productivity, fulfillment & well being

AutomobilesTrains (standardized time zones)Late 1800s1900Assembly lines & mass production1950Interstate Highway SystemElectric typewritersPersonal Fax MachinesAffordable flyingCell phonesInternetWi-FiPersonal ComputersE-mailInstant Messaging19601970Events that have increased the Speed, Complexity, & Volume of Work in the 21st Century198019902000sMainframe computersTouch tone (digital) phonesSputnik & Space racefuture technology trendsBy 2015 there will be more than 50 billion chips that will all be connected into one wireless global network, speaking one language.

By 2020 these self evolving chips will have the capacity to learn, watch, record, analyze, and identify every person on the planet in real time.

By 2020 the internet will develop a type of personal awareness of itself.

From The Extreme Future by James Canton, Ph.D.

Hows this working for us?Since 1957 our GNP has double while the average level of happiness has declined (about 32%). .. the divorce rate has doubled, teen suicide has doubled, violent crime has tripled, more people than ever are depressed, overweight, suffer from ADD, and are addicted to drugs, food, gambling, stress and/or work.

The number of American workers who consider stress to be a major problem in their lives has more than doubled during the past ten years.

62% percent of American workers say their workload has increased over the last six months; 53% say work leaves them "overtired and overwhelmed.

6Feeling Disconnected?While we have been miraculously connecting electronically over the past 15 years, we have also quietly and unintentionally been disconnecting interpersonally.

~~~CrazyBusy, Edward M. Hallowell, M.D.

7Signs you might be suffering from ADDYou pulled up to a stop sign and waited for the light to change.You tried to open the front door of your house with the keyless remote to your car.You tried to change television channels with the telephone.You could not find the glasses that were on your face!

8Todays ChallengesPrioritizing-knowing which thing to do and when to it Distractions & interruptions - Handling too much of everything; technology, information, demands, tasks and multiple projects Productivity Tools what tools to use & how to use them, so they work for YOUQuality of life & health - Handling ever increasing amounts of stress and anxiety, learning how to relax in the face of it What about you?What your challenges?Work HabitsWe have work habits that impede our performance and lead to stress.Altering your work habits will transform your productivity and diminish your stress

habit (habit) n.

A recurrent, often unconscious pattern of behavior that is acquired through frequent repetition. An established disposition of the mind or character.An addiction, especially to a narcotic drug.

Definition of Habit

12Throughout the day we will using familiar terms in a way that may seem unfamiliar but true to its definition

And research shows that 85% of what we do is habit. We wear the same limited number of clothes most of the time. We go to the 5 same restaurants and order the same 5 items or less.

habits at workThis happens

Someone walks into your office

Something comes to mind that you need to remember

Someone asks you to do something

An email arrives in your in boxYou do this

You stop what you are doing & talk

You tell yourself Ill remember that later

You jot it down on a handy scrap of paper

You stop what you are doing and respond to the email13What are some of your work habits and/ or techno-addictions?Email, texting, taking interruptions, responding or not responding, procrastinating, waking up at 3am in a panic, working all the time, avoiding the hard stuff, being too self critical, always trying to get more organized..Time Management When most people think of productivity, they think of time management, useful but limited We have more productivity tools than we could have imagined. Since 1960 the average American is working 160 hours more per year

The Time Management LadderDay/Executive PlannersOrganizational tools:Post-it notes, whiteboards, paper calendars, Technology Tools:Blackberrys, Laptops,Electronic CalendarsElectronic Post-it notes cocktails

Theres a disconnect between the new work environment, our traditional approaches and our brains capacity to effectively deal with work & life

Working longer hours is unsustainable; resulting in exhaustion, sickness & disengagement.

trying to get it all done You will never get it all done.Its Impossible!It is obvious that you will never get it all done, but you habitually think you should get it all done

We all know that good people should get it all done and are failures if they dont. Since you are a good person you will try to get it all done, anyway even if you cant.

NoticeWhat are some of the ways you try to get it all done?

20SAY:One of the most insidious habits we have to confront in increasing our productivity is the habit we all have of trying to get it all done.

SAY:Lets get into small groups of three (try to work with people you havent worked with yet today.) In your small groups, discuss how you see this first habit in your own lives. What are some of the ways you attempt to get it all done? What are the results? What, if any, consequences are there? You have five minutes to discuss.

When group reconvenes

ASKWhat did you discuss in your groups?

Answers will vary.

ASK:How many of us have left work at the end of the day, feeling out of sorts because we didnt finish everything on our list? (Show of hands.)

SAY:A common habit of life in the 21st century is to measure our productivity based on our ability to complete everything on those to do lists, everything there is to do or handle.

SAY:The question is

Click to advance to next slide, and ask one of the participants to read the slide aloud.Multi-tasking?

ReleaseI release the need to get it all done, now and forever.

Technology (alone) is not the answerWe need an integrated approach to productivity that is grounded in the totality of who we are.

.Too much technology? Our task now is to learn how to use the technology weve invented, rather than allow it to use us, so that it improves our human connections, and does not replace them.

Too much technology?Did you hear about the women that called 911 because she locked herself inside her car? (Turns out the keys were in the ignition!)I actually saw a man checking his email on his laptop and using the urinal at the same time.One of my friends told me she sent a text message to her son asking him what he wanted for dinner - she was in the kitchen, he was in the living room!Ever yelled at the automated voice?I caught my Rabbi checking his blackberry while leading prayer serviceperhaps it was you know who

25What productivity tools do you really need? How many do you use?To Do / Task ListPDAE-mailTabletsPiles on your desk Computerized schedule Scraps of paperFilesBooksLaptop computerBound notebooksPaper Schedules/OrganizersBasketsDatabaseFax machinesCell phoneWord ProcessorsBlackberryDictaphoneVoice messagesDesk top computerWall calendarDesk phoneInternet portalsWireless productsVoice recorderDigital cameraComputer databasesPost-it NotesSpreadsheets

Instant messagingNotebooksPaper foldersComputer filesContact listsSatellite phonesReference librariesActivity logsProject Mgmt programsCRM softwareWebcast presentationsTape recordersVideo camerasPlannersVoicemail logsMeeting journals

27Your Current Management StructureWhen you look at your list as a system, whats the nature of your existence system? How would you describe it?

What is the impact of using this system on your performance and peace of mind?28Productivity PracticesCapture Schedule Use Task Folders for Managing People & ProjectsCatch Tools

30[READ the Speaker Notes]

You use only one of these as your Capture Tool. You have only one Capture Tool. No cheating, it will put the mountain right back on your back.

Only one of these can be your Capture Tool, and in order to experience Power, Freedom, and Peace of Mind, on a daily basis, you must keep your Capture Tool ready-to-hand.

With all that in mind, please choose and hold up whatever you have chosen for your one-and-only-one Capture Tool.

[Look over the whole room at what people are holding up, and ask the ones who are not holding anything up, what theyre going to use for their Capture Tool, and if they dont have anything now, what they will use until they get the one they want.]

From now on, including the rest of this course, you will begin to use your Capture Tool for anything that comes up for you to do or handle, so keep it ready-to-hand.

If you find the Capture Tool youve chosen doesnt work out for you in practice, it is no problem to try one of the other 2 Capture Tools, that is, as long as you dont try to use 2 at once.

If you already know that you want to get a different Capture Tool, then enter, getting a different Capture Tool, into the temporary Capture Tool that you just chose.

Next, we are going to deal with three supplements to the four Standard Work Practices for the Capture Tool. In actual practice, you will need these three supplements.

[Go to and READ the ENTIRE next slide down through number 1]

[End]Catch Tool Work PracticesYou have one or two Catch Tools

Your Catch Tool is at hand at all times

Enter ideas into your Catch Tool as they come to mind

Each day, you move everything from your Catch Tool into your calendar, or to your outlook projects folders31 If youre going to do it; schedule it

32 Storing Relevant Information

The OccasionLink to information on the InternetPertinent E-mailAgenda items can also go hereinhaleexhaleemail

5 practices for saving your sanityEmail PracticesTurn off your e-mail notification indicators sound and visual. Schedule time to scan and read the E-mail in your inbox As you read and scan your E-mail, slide anything that you cannot respond to instantly into your Not Doing Now E-mail folder or to the task folder it belongs toEmail PracticesSchedule three or four occasions per week to review, process and respond to what is in your Not Doing Now E-mail folder.Do not open and read E-mail except during the scheduled Occasion.

Handling interruptions & distractionsInterruptions & DistractionsLearn to say NO when you should

When interrupted ask, is this a 411 or a 911

Use Agendas (task folders in Outlook) to manage projects and people

Close your door when you should

TipsRelease the need to be busy all the time

Release stress through breathe; meditate, walk, exercise

When you dont know what to do; get quite & check in

Dont eat & work at the same time

TipsTake brief but regular breaks from your desk, naps are good whenever possible, feed your soul

Manage the quantity & quality of exposure to the machines

Dont take your technology to bed, take your spouse to bed instead

Reduce caffeine, sugar and alcohol

My doctor says only one glass of alcohol per dayI can live with that!

completionWe are at crossroads

Business as usualWorking longer & harderConsuming to get happyThinking from separateness

Connection

Communication

Consciousness

Thinking from Oneness

Being a whole person The link between wealth and happiness is not borne out by experience. Money can buy many things but not happiness and well being. It can buy sex but not love, attention but not caring, information but not wisdom. What did you get?What do you now see is possible?

Coaching or SupportNeed Support?760-918-6701

Or Visit: www.lifeworkseducation.com/resources

47Helen KellerI used to have time to think, to reflect, my mind and I. We would sit together of an evening and listen to the inner melodies of the spirit which one only hears in leisure moments when the words of some loved poet touch a deep, sweet chord in the soul that until then had been silent.