How to Truly Pay Attention to your Work–Before it Costs you Your Job

The four important keys for managing distractions at work so that you can increase your productivity and performance include:

1. Recognize what, when, why and how distractions occur for you. Realize they may be different for you than for others.

2. Identify everything vying for your time, attention and resources.

3. Select your top priorities.

4. Realign around your priorities and FOCUS!!

What works for you??

Is Sarah Palin ready to be the next VP?

Pretty much everywhere I go and in many of my phone conversations, women are talking about Sarah Palin’s nomination to the VP spot on the Republican ticket. Never before have I heard so many diverse people voice their opinions and concerns about an election. Her election has provoked many conversations and reactions not only in the US, but around the world!

I was interviewed on News Radio 740 KTRH located in Houston, TX in a show that aired this past Monday. They inquired about my opinion regarding working mothers. So, I wonder, is the controversy about her election into the VP candidate position really about her experience, her family responsibilities, her views on the issues, her ability to perform the job duties, or perhaps, something else or a combination of sorts?

The question I keep hearing is “What is a woman with five children, including an infant with Downs Syndrome, doing seeking the Vice Presidency of the United States?”

My initial reaction is that if this were a man (and many men have had families while holding high public office!) it would not be discussed as an issue. In an election year where Hillary Clinton nearly became the first Presidential candidate women have been more involved emotionally and mentally from the onset of this campaign.

I’ve heard this issue characterized as a gender bias issue and also sexist. I’ve heard people across the country question whether a mother of five would have a hard time fulfilling the duties of the second highest office in the country. I’ve also heard people question her commitment to her family and what’s in the best interest of her children.

The real issues should be about whether or not any candidate can fulfill the oath of their position. Do they have the experience, knowledge, resources to handle their job responsibilities? Will their be conflicting demands and priorities that might interfere with the duties of the position? If so, how will they be handled? What if she became pregnant again while in office?

Women have successfully worked for years in positions of varying responsibilites and visibility. Working mothers have led successful companies, states, towns, hospitals, and universities. Is the Vice Presidential position such a position that lends itself to the work-life balance needs of a working mother (and soon-to-be grandmother)?

Many career opportunities are available today for women who seek a career outside the home. With work-life balance being a top concern of employers and employees since the 60′s, much has been done to address the needs and provide a variety of approaches for helping people manage. Is the government ready to address ths at such a high level? If so, what will this do for working mothers across the Country?

One concern that’s come up for me is that although much of what I initially read and heard about Sarah Palin described her husband as a caretaker for their children and a stay-at-home dad, the more recent news describes him as an oil field production operator, a commercial fisherman, and professional snowmobile racer who spends extended periods away from the home. His work requires that he spend most of his time out at sea or traveling at high speeds over frozen tundra.

No mention has been made of extended family or a support network of friends who have helped in the past with child rearing (or other home-based responsibilities) or might be available in the future if Mrs. Palin becomes the Vice President of the United States of America. There is no dispute that young children do need the time and attention from their parent(s). In my opinion, how Sarah Palin cares for her children is really more of a personal decision but one which deserves attention from the point that, if elected, she would hold the highest office of any woman in the US. And, if the elected President, John McCain had any issues that prevented him from fulfilling his duties, Sarah Palin would become the first female President of the US. Is she ready? Is America ready? Is the world ready?

Is this discussion and the questions raised sexist or realist? What are your views??

Staying focused

On average in our fast-paced society, we switch tasks every 3 minutes, and once distracted can take up to a half an hour to resume the original task. This pace leaves many unfocused and challenged to complete tasks. It can cause you to miss crucial information during a conversation and damage teamwork, work and personal relationships. These distractions effect teamwork, focus and productivity. It’s harder and harder to stay focused on our important tasks at work. Most people struggle throughout the day to stay focused and in the present.

Consider these tips to help stay more focused at work or home:

• Take a breather and allow yourself to zone out for a brief time
• Stretch or take a walk to help get re-focused
• Engage in eye contact when communicating face-to-face
• Turn away from the computer, window, messy desk during conversations
• Use various types of meditation to slow breathing and maintain clarity
• Turn off the electronics and communication devices
• Move to a quiet area to concentrate on a complex task free of interruptions
• Live in the moment and be fully present
• Practice re-engaging and re-focusing often; train your mind to stop drifting

Business or personal coaching can help you develop tools and strategies to gain more focus. The Distraction Diva, Natalie Gahrmann, helps busy professionals increase performance, productivity and satisfaction by decreasing distractions.

Conquer Challenges of Work & Family

As life continues to speed up around you and technology provides opportunities for you to do more, many people feel further away from living a balanced life. One of the central concerns of all working professionals is to live a balanced life. Your life, however, is fluid and in constant motion, therefore the challenges you face are continually shifting and evolving. You must find the formula that works for you and avoid the should’s, could’s, and have to’s because they reflect someone else’s standards rather than your own.

You must learn to look, not for a solution, but for a process, a way of addressing your challenges and issues that you can use over and over as each issue arises. Just as you weigh the pro’s and con’s of each course of action at work, you set goals and objectives, you organize your work, you delegate, and, you communicate, you must learn to bring this level of concentration, focus and discipline to your life at home. Interestingly, the same skills that contribute to your success on the job and make you a valued, productive employee, are the skills you also need to manage your home life and to achieve a healthy balance.

Some of the common challenges facing working professionals today include: time for self, relationships and family; being able to organize at home and work; sticking to priorities; professional development and career growth; societal standards; conflicting demands; and sheer exhaustion. You can combat some of these challenges by:

• keeping a healthy perspective
• rethinking the ‘should’s, ‘could’s, ‘have to’s, ‘ought’s and ‘if only’s in your life
• acknowledging and accepting your reality and current situation
• recognizing your limitations
• having a positive attitude
• aligning your actions and handling of every day tasks and demands with what’s truly most important to you (seek the joy in life and you’ll end up feeling balanced and happy)
• committing to making changes to simplify your life and eliminate habits that no longer serve you.

The stress of balancing work and personal life can make you feel out of control. It can negatively affect your health and self-esteem. Feeling in control increases your ability to cope and feel better about yourself. The end result is that you can be a more productive worker and a more loving parent and partner.

Use driving time

Lately I’ve been attending more meetings, events, conferences and tapings than normal so I’ve been spending more time on the road commuting to and from locations than I usually do. It is a good reminder for me that this time can feel totally wasted or effectively used, depending on how you spend it. You have numerous options how to use your commuting time. Here are a couple of things that come to mind:

• Relax. Do nothing and feel good about it!
• Practice deep breathing.
• Do Kegal exercises (or other exercises or stretches you can safely perform while driving).
• Catch up on phone calls (using a headset or speakerphone, of course!)
• Listen to music—your choice, highly energizing or soft and relaxing.
• Create a to-do list.
• Sing!
• Dictate into a tape recorder.
• Observe nature, people, cars, billboards, etc. Be really present in the moment.
• Change your clothes (not highly recommended! I used to do this on my commute from the office to the college when I was working on my masters).
• Eat (be careful though, some foods adapt better to eating on the go than others!)
• Drink—non-alcoholic, of course!. (I recommend keeping a bottle of water in your car at all times. If it’s there, you’re more likely to drink it)
• Plan your meals.
• Create your shopping list.
• Put on make-up (while the car is stopped at a light or in traffic, of course!)
  Spend some quality time with your children (if they’re commuting with you. Children are more likely to talk and share information when you’re not able to look them right in the eye).
• Find another route. Explore other roads less traveled.
• Carpool with a friend and really get to know him/her.
  Rest your eyes (not while your car is moving but when you are stopped briefly).
• Do errands along the way to avoid extra trips out.
• Play a game (even if no one else is in the car with you! I’ve stopped boredom a number of times by noting license plates from other states, counting convertibles, etc.).
• Practice a conversation or speech.
• Listen to an inspirational audio.
• Take an audio class for personal or professional growth.
• Flirt!
• Wave to someone in another car.
• Plan a date.
• Phone home. Find out if anything is needed. Get a feel for everyone else’s mood so that you can adjust yours accordingly.
• Read (only if someone else is driving!)
• Knit (only if someone else is driving!)
• Clip coupons (only if someone else is driving!)
• Just look out the window.
• Have a crisis (not highly recommended! Be sure you have enough gas, oil and other fluids, the right tire pressure, working lights and windshield wipers, etc. Have some extra cash and coins on-hand. Have a snack and drink readily available. Have a first-aid kit, emergency supplies, a map, a working phone, and anything else you can think of on-hand to avoid having a crisis to or from work. Either will totally ruin your day!)
• Unwind from a stressful morning on your commute in. Be thankful that you’re away from the craziness of home!
• Unwind from a stressful day at work. Be thankful to be reuniting with your family after a busy day on-the-job.

With a list this long, I’m sure you’ll find some things to do during your commute, so, consciously choose how you want to use your commuting time. Avoid letting circumstances rule your time. Try out some of the ideas above, create some new one (and share them with me, of course!)

Basic Tips for Managing Multiple Projects

I searched the Internet last week to develop a list to present at a workshop I was preparing for a client. Unfortunately, I cannot recall the sources but I want to share the following:

Basic Tips for Managing Multiple Projects

1. Before you check your voice mail or email each morning, list what you would like to accomplish today. Be realistic about how much and what you can really accomplish in any given day. Prioritize what needs to be completed immediately and what can wait until later in the day.

2. Once you have your prioritized list, and depending on the type of work you do, either get a top priority completed (even just a major step!) or check your messages to see what’s come in since you left the office. Write down all the pertinent information (e.g., request, contact info). Determine a time in your day when you will return messages. Reply with detailed messages whenever possible to derail the telephone tag which could ensure when you and your contact keep leaving messages for each other. This saves a huge amount of time and frustration! Reprioritize your list based on the messages you received.

3. Stay organized. Being organized will diminish stress levels. Keep project or client info well organized and easy to locate. Have only one project or file on your desk at a time so that you can stay focused on the task at hand. Avoid multi-tasking because this causes you to bounce around from project to project.

4. At the end of the day, list what you didn’t accomplish. Have this list be the basis for your next day’s to-do list. When you begin this process again tomorrow, you can prioritize what’s on your list again and complete the most important activities. Get your projects under control!

Fighting Fires isn’t Sexy

For those of you with more on your to-do list than you have time to do, it could be quite difficult to decide which projects get your time and attention. Getting focused is the top challenge most super busy managers struggle with. I have learned so much about this problem first-hand dealing with it as I balance my roles as mother, wife, friend, daughter, sister, and more with that of being an entrepreneur. I have now created and delivered a highly effective workshop “There’s Too Much on my Plate” to help others manage their work more effectively rather than constantly fighting fires by handling the crises that come there way on a regular basis.

Some highly recommended and very effective techniques I teach about include:

1. Choose the RIGHT priorities

Here I refer to the 80:20 rule and apply it to managing your workload. Don’t be so busy doing lots of the things that will detract you from doing the things that matter most. 80% is trivial but 20% is vital. Focus on your 20% with 80% of your time and energy. Work smarter! Focus the majority of your time and energy on activities that advance your overall goals and purpose. Anything else on your to-do list is likely a distraction!

2. Ask Yourself the RIGHT questions

Rather than asking about how you’ll be able to get everything done, ask what steps will help you achieve your goals, how the activity or project ties into the bigger picture, when critical hand-offs need to occur and other such questions that more closely align with your goals and objectives.

3. Be in Control

Manage your day rather than reacting to other’s needs and priorities and putting your own priorities on the back burner. Don’t be fooled to believe that you’ll be able to get to your stuff once you’ve gotten through everyone else’s because that rarely, if ever really happens. Learn to negotiate and ask better questions, to push back, and to set clear boundaries.

Fighting someone else’s fires places your time and energy with them. When someone needs your help and tries to make their priority your priority, remember that by reacting you are giving up your power. Instead, if reasonable, politely let them know that you will gladly help them out later once you’ve finished your own work. Focus on your priorities first!

Manage self not Time

For years I’ve been hearing about Time Management. However, time is elusive and really can’t be managed. Instead, manage yourself. The real key is that effective self managers define their priorities and schedule activities, they don’t manage the clock as there are only 24 hours in a day, 168 hours in a week. If you manage it, it will not grow or accumulate, so you really must manage how you use time, manage your work, and control your actions.

The trap that most super busy people fall into is believing that he/she can do it all. You might be able to do it all, but perhaps not at the same time or not with the same focus, tenacity or results. Everything doesn’t deserve equal time or attention. Therefore, you really must make conscious decisions about what’s really most important. Multi-tasking has been proven ineffective in numerous studies, so make choices and focus on the most important tasks first.

Time is a precious commodity. However, many people waste valuable time getting stuck in one or more of the following habits:

Being a Perfectionist: Believing that work or output that is anything less than perfect is unacceptable. This belief is often marked by low productivity as individuals lose time and energy on small irrelevant details of larger projects or mundane daily activities.

Procrastinating: Putting off, avoiding or deferring actions or tasks to a later time.

Crises Management: Reacting to threats, elements of surprise and urgencies but having no time for the routine matters that might be more important.

Being Unfocused: Lack of concentration on a particular task or activity which is evident usually by switching, floundering or multi-tasking.

Allowing Interruptions: Distractions and interruptions are costly to individual performance and the bottom-line. In fact, unnecessary interruptions consume about 28 percent of the knowledge worker’s day, which translates to 28 billion lost hours to companies in the United States alone (“The Cost of Not Paying Attention: How Interruptions Impact Knowledge Worker Productivity,” Jonathan B. Spira and Joshua B. Feintuch, Basex, 2005). At an average cost per hour of $21 (U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics June 2005), that costs U.S. companies $588 billion per annum.

Emotional Blocks: Boredom, daydreaming, stress, guilt, anger and frustration all reduce concentration.

Preferential Treatment?

According to Elizabeth at the Career and Kids blog
http://www.careerandkids.com/do-working-mothers-get-a-pass-on-working-late/

In the workplace, it’s often perceived that parents, especially mothers, get preferential treatment when it comes to working late or overtime. However, a recent survey by Adecco USA Workplace finds that working moms are just as likely as non-parents to work late:

The latest Adecco USA Workplace Insight survey, conducted in recognition of Mother’s Day, found that working moms (71%) are just as likely as non-parents (73%) to work late and respond to e-mails after hours, even though one-third of all workers (32%) would be less inclined to ask a working parent (male or female) to do so. Further, even though they’re willing to burn the midnight oil with the rest of their colleagues, nearly half of moms (49%) think their companies should do more to help them achieve better work/life balance.

For more information, check out this press release!

What are your thoughts? What are your personal experiences?

Working Parents

I visited the Fox Studios in NY earlier today to tape 2 segments for FoxBusiness.com. Although we had an appointment for studio time at 11:15, we were not able to tape until later that afternoon because someone had mis-communicated. (Has anything like this ever happened to you??)

Anyway, I was interviewed about tips for working parents for one segment and how to set better boundaries at work for the other. Anna Gilligan, the host was a pleasure to work with although not personally able understand the issues facing working parents every day, beings she’s not a parent herself. Many of the tips shared in this type of format are general and non-specific because it’s reaching a varied audience. When you read Succeeding as a
Super Busy Parent you can select the tips that apply to you and incorporate them into your life. Sometimes we get so busy that we forget the practical and sometimes simple things you could be doing to beat this challenge. You can check out the show at http://www.foxbusiness.com/video/index.html?playerId=videolandingpage&streamingFormat=FLASH&referralPlaylistId=5fd543b8ce7fcb5cee5c4eaecd94e0a73b33a327.

If this doesn’t work, go to the FoxBusiness.com site and scroll down to the gold box on the left-hand side that says Fast Track (Download Podcast/ Watch Now). Click Watch now and scroll down to select the March 10 video on Working Parents.

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