Four More No Cost Ways to Increase Your Productivity Fast

Yesterday, we started  with the premise that  distractions and interruptions are the big enemy of business success these days.  Time management turns out to be a huge challenge for business owners and executives. They get consumed fighting fires, addressing critical issues and needs. They just never get time (make time) to focus on important tasks – those tasks that make them most valuable in their business.


Here are a few more ways you can institute to get more control of your time so you can focus on those most valuable activities:

1. Schedule time to read and respond to email and stick to a time limit. When it’s under control, you can relax and focus on more important things.
2. Turn off automatic delivery of email. You get to control email. It does not need to control you.
3. Schedule time to return phone calls. Batch together all the cards you received and make those calls back to back.
4. Create a work environment conducive to productivity. For some people it’s moving their desk to a different place in the room. For some people it’s redesigning how they use their space or bringing in a Feng Shui expert. For some people it’s flowers, a rug or art on the walls. For me it’s a window looking out at nature.

Kerri

No Cost Ways to Increase Your Productivity – #1

The Global Productivity Test – During the World Cup

I’m not a sports addict. but I do enjoy watching the best of the best in champion matches at the end of any sports season.

Last week it was basketball. In the U.S. many people arrived at work daily – sleep deprived from watching the NBA championship series out in LA. If you were one of them, you can relate. It’s hard to focus and keep up the normal pace of work. All the tricks of walking around, coffee, extra food, sugar, music – they don’t make up for the shortage of sleep. As a result, you can’t work as efficiently.

This week, the same is happening around the globe as everyone tunes in to the World Cup soccer matches in South Africa. In this case, the productivity statistics have been measured and quantified – particularly in England.

“For years, economists have studied the productivity of workers in countries all over the globe during the World Cup. A June story in U.S. News & World Report cited a British law firm’s estimate that this World Cup will cost the economy in Great Britain $7.36 billion in productivity — that is, if British workers merely watch games for an hour each day. Also this month, the Baltimore Sun quoted an English research firm’s estimate that as much as 40 percent of the working population there takes sick leave to watch England play matches.

Actually, the way the English have fared as of this writing, I’d estimate upwards of 60 percent of the country’s work force calls in sick the day after their games.” http://ow.ly/23pQc

In contrast, as much as Americans love to watch their favorite tennis superstars, only a few were in a position to watch Isner and Mahut’s epic Wimbledon match lasting 11 hours, 5 minutes which went to 70-68 in the fifth set over three days this week. Ask anyone who did watch how much work they got done. It’s another simple example that multi-tasking is not productive.

It’s easy to note who loves international sports and who does not follow them at all. Just watch how much work they get done and how focused they are for the rest of June as we get down to the top 16 in both the World Cup and Wimbledon. It will be a great week for sports. In contast, I think productivity in the office will suffer. I wonder what the loss of productivity is in monetary terms on that?

Kerri
http://www.breakthroughenterprise.com

Northeast Productivity Bootcamp gets results

3 Systems to Automate Business Operations

Do You Have a System to Know Your Numbers?

Join me at the 3rd Annual Women’s Leadership Summit on June 11th.

The purpose of the NH Women’s Leadership Summit is to raise awareness of the personal and professional capacities and skills needed to advance in the competitive and changing world of the 21st century. This statewide event is aimed at women interested in both personal and professional growth and in optimizing their career choices now and in the future.

The intention of this one day Women’s Leadership event is to provide women with a more skilled and confident presence in sharing the leadership of New Hampshire organizations and in actively shaping the future of the U.S. Economy.

The sessions provided throughout the day will appeal to women across levels of seniority, professions and generations. There will be specific opportunities for professional development, skill building and networking. You will have an opportunity to network and to speak with women you do not normally meet. The events of the day are designed to enhance motivation, build confidence and provide inspiration.

To build your confidence with numbers, my afternoon workshop, Making the Financial Case will provide a system of steps and tools to know your numbers and eliminate all angst about your business finances. Only when you know your numbers are you really in business.

Kerri

http://ow.ly/1VavG

Create a Process to Tame Your Finances

Do you dread doing the numbers or reading financial statements?

Even if you are not a numbers person, it is essential to master the financial statements for your business. They validate your business plan. They make your marketing plan possible.

On Thursday, June 10 at 4pm EDT, I’m hosting a teleseminar: Making the Financial Case.

You will learn a step-by-step process to make the financial case for every decision in your business and make it stick. Reviewing and understanding financial statements is a core business process to master. If you don’t know your numbers, you aren’t in business.

We’ll go through three case studies – before and after as examples of real businesses who have gone through the process to make the Financial Case for their business plan and strategy.

To learn more and register, go to http://ow.ly/1UA3g.

When you have a system, tools and a process to know your numbers, and control your numbers, you can make better decisions.

Kerri

http://ow.ly/1UA3g.

Great Recommendation for 90 Day Expat Entrepreneur

90 Day Expat Entrepreneur was my first product. It serves Americans moving abroad who want to earn an income wherever they put down roots knowing they can’t get hired  into a job abroad.

The Overseas Opportunity Letter is a publication from Live and Invest Overseas. In yesterday’s dispatch, Publisher, Kathleen Peddicord answered a reader’s question about How to Pay for Your New Live Overseas. Here’s how she concluded her answer:

“It is not easy to get a job in another country. But it’s easier all the time, thanks to ever-evolving 21st-century technologies, to generate an income almost anywhere.
The best resource I know for getting started (making a plan and following through) is the 90 Day Expat Entrepreneur.”

The 90 Day Expat Entrepreneur is a systematic series of 90 lessons that you work through daily, building a foundation for your business.

Kerri
Check out the 90 Day Expat Entrpreneur here.

Rethinking Thinking Small to Think Much Bigger

When I committed to deliver 1.5 day productivity bootcamps to business owners, I prepared a whitepaper on the need and the benefits of improving your productivity at work. I wanted people to think about the time that’s wasted, about using technology not to be busier but to get control of time, of our schedules. The immediate response, even before the website is up has been tremendous.

Of course I wanted the bootcamps to be a success helping clients transform their businesses. I knew this curriculum was rock solid and packs a lot into a short time. But the raves and superlatives coming out of the mouths of my first clients this week is making me raise my sights and think much bigger. I was thinking too small. The immediate shifts in how they work is dramatically impacting the value of their business before we even finish the program.

It will be great to get their testimonials up on the Northeast Productivity Bootcamp site. Coming soon.