Positive productivity: How increasing your energy maximizes your efficiency

The traditional concept of time management focuses on the practice of ardently planning and mastering conscious control over the time allocated to specific tasks.  It sure sounds hard, described that way, doesn't it?  In real life—especially business settings—time management requires tools, skills and processes all laced together by the ultimate goal of increasing efficiency and productivity. Frankly, time management takes a lot of time. 

But what if increasing productivity was much simpler than that? What if instead of involving project management software, schedules, graphs and apps, the process required a decent pair of walking shoes and a fluffy pillow?

Master your energy

Based on the assertions of Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz in their bestseller, "The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal," our most precious resource is energy, not time. Certainly making the best use of your time is critical to your success but, if your energy levels are depleted, your productivity takes a dive regardless of what the clock reads.

Of course, managing your energy in a world abuzz with communication gizmos is no easy task. Energy replenishment takes effort. Think about it:  how many times during your workweek lunch breaks—an hour that should be devoted to refueling and recharging—have you allowed the chatter of texts and emails to further drain your energy?

Build your energy on 4 strong pillars

According to the ideas in "The Power of Full Engagement" as well as those on Tony Schwartz's blog, "The Energy Project," physical energy is the foundation to our overall efficiency. While emotional, mental and spiritual energy are also critical components of high performance, when our physical bucket is empty, all heck breaks loose. By incorporating these four key pillars of physical fulfillment into your typical day, you can elevate your energy levels and in turn, take a major step toward positive productivity.

1. Nutrition: Eat small, high-protein, low-carbohydrate meals throughout the day.  You've likely heard this before but eating mini meals throughout the day is a simple way to sustain your energy. For busy professionals who spend long days at the office, The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics recommends keeping single-serve packages of crackers, fruit, peanut butter, low-sodium soup or canned tuna in your desk. Tuck snacks in your travel bag for a quick refueling between meetings (I always have a couple of Kind bars stashed in my backpack). If remembering to eat  at the right times is a challenge for you, download an app such as the Temple Hydration, Food, Fitness and More iPhone app (TheTempleApp.com), which comes with customizable reminders that kick in when it has been too long since you last ate.

2. Fitness: Make regular exercise a habit.  According to the MayoClinic, regular exercise not only controls weight and helps you avoid a slew of health conditions and diseases, it improves your mood and boosts energy levels. If hitting the gym is not your style, buy a pedometer and record the number of steps you take every day. The Energy Project blog recommends shooting for 10,000 steps per day.  (By the way: I love my pedometer — I have a new one that is fantastic and will be reviewing it next week)

3. Sleep: Get an average of 8 hours of sleep every night.  To aid in developing a sleep-conducive cycle, the National Sleep Foundation suggests sticking to a regular bed and wake time schedule, including weekends. They also recommend creating an environment that is cool, quiet, comfortable and dark. If light is spoiling your sleep space, invest in room darkening or blackout cellular shades to block out the light. Finally, keep the gadgets out of the bedroom as much as possible. Computers, tablets and cell phones distract you from the task at hand: a good night's sleep.

4. Renewal: Plan regular vacations, social outings and personal time. Whether it's a massage, Frisbee golf with the guys or a week-long camping trip, detaching from the daily grind altogether for substantial pockets of time is key to replenishing your physical and mental energy. In the "The Power of Full Engagement," the authors redefine the old paradigm of "downtime is wasted time" to "downtime is productive time." Use your downtime wisely by doing something fun.

Bottom line, don't throw away your precious time management tools and apps just yet. But do make your physical well-being a top priority and start to take note of how your energy levels impact your focus and productivity. It's worth the time.

Got any tips that work for you?  I'd love to hear them.

Make your car more "hands-free friendly"

In my state, use of mobile devices is prohibited while driving, unless you're using them in a hands-free mode.  I've been doing that since it became a law but it was a bit of a pain sometimes because there was no good place to put my phone and it would slide around while I drove.

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I looked around for a holder for mobile devices, but all the ones I found required drilling holes, sticking an adhesive disk on my dashboard, or sticking a suction cup to my window.  I didn't want to damage my car's interior, and those ones that stick to the window block my view and fall off at inconvenient times. 

Recently, I discovered a great solution for this problem: the Mountek nGroove Universal CD Slot Mount for Cell Phones and GPS Devices.

This is a well-built mount for your mobile devices, which fits in the CD slot in your car.  There is an adjustable "gripper" that you expand to grab the inside of the CD slot to hold the mount in place.  The device holder portion of the Mountek is adjustable to fit most mobile devices and hold them in place securely. 

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I've been using this mount for a couple of months and it is great.  Not only does it keep my phone from sliding around, it also allows me to put my phone in a position where I can easily see the GPS guidance using Waze, Google Navigator, or other mapping software.

I don't use my CD player much in the car, but on the couple of occasions when I needed to, I just loosened the adjustment thumbscrew on the Mountek, took it off, added a CD, and remounted the Mountek. 

I'm very happy with the Mountek nGroove Universal CD Slot Mount for Cell Phones and GPS Devices- it seems very sturdy, meets my requirements, and doesn't damage the interior of my car. 

My Pebble Watch: A Two-week Review

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A long time ago, I put in an order for a Pebble watch which bills itself as an "E-Paper Watch for iPhone and Android."  If you're not familiar with this, this was a Kickstarter success story.  They initially appealed to the public for funding and got $10.2 million in about a month - pretty impressive. 

They've sold somewhere north of 75,000 watches and are scurrying to catch up with their backorders.  They started shipping in March and I was somewhere in the low 40,000's and got my watch two weeks ago - in my opinion, they are making good progress. 

My Observations So Far

As I mention in the title, I've had this watch for a couple of weeks (I got the black one) and I'm pretty happy with it.  Some observations based on my brief experience:

Look and Feel

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• The watch is well-made and looks nice.  It is a bit on the large size, which suits me fine as I have big wrists, but I'd be interested in hearing how people with smaller wrists feel about the size (this is a unisex, one-size watch at the current time).
• It does fine with random exposure to water, and lives up to the water-resistant claims (showers, dishwashing, etc. - haven't tried swimming with it yet). 
• The look is sleek and clean.  My only concern with the design is the durability of the "glass" screen.  It feels like a tough plastic, and I'm thinking it will probably scratch over time so I plan to be careful where I wear this watch.
• I have gotten a lot of comments and compliments on the watch, as it looks very striking.   I think the watch faces have a lot to do with this - they are very clean, readable, and can be changed to match your style or mood (you can have quite a few watch faces loaded on the watch, and cycle through them with the watch buttons).  My favorite watch face is one of the "built-in" faces - the one that shows the time in words, as you can see in the picture above.

Connectivity

• The watch syncs easily with my phone (an HTC One) via Bluetooth, and automatically connects and disconnects when I'm out of range, with no intervention from me. 
• I travel a lot, and the watch adjusts automatically to my local time zone, which I like very much. 
• It is easy to download new watch faces using the browser on my phone.  Once I download a watch face, it syncs to my watch and becomes available immediately.  My favorite site for Pebble watch faces is AllPebble.
  
• It's also easy to download apps for the watch, though there aren't many of them yet.  Pebble just opened up their SDK for developers, so expect we'll see a lot more apps soon (I'm hoping for one that acts as a pedometer and sleep monitor - the watch has the sensors to do it, it just needs the software.
• One of the coolest aspects of connectivity is the built-in music control.  I can use my watch to start & stop music, and go to the next and previous tracks.  I didn't think I'd use this very much but it has been a great way to control music while I'm driving without taking my eyes off the road.  Another cool side benefit of the music controller app is that it will show the name and artist of the song on your watch face. 

Alerts and Notifications

• Since it's paired with your phone, you can use the Pebble as a remote display for app notifications, SMS, email alerts, and things like that.  This is pretty configurable - for example, I only use the watch for text messages, WhatsApp! alerts, and meeting reminders.
• The Pebble has a vibrating alarm, which is very nice - it is a non-jarring way to wake up, and I can set an early morning alarm without waking up my wife.   Also, you can set the alarm directly on the watch, which means you can adjust alarm settings even when you don't have your phone or it's in Airplane mode.
• The watch warns you when it's running low on battery, and you have about half a day to charge it once the alerts start. 

Battery life

• Battery life has been very good.  Pebble claims you'll get 4 to 7 days out of a charge, and I've been getting about 5 or 6, so the claims seem accurate.  The variability is mainly a factor of 1) how many alarms and alerts cause the phone to vibrate every day; and 2) how much you use the backlight (you can have it come on automatically when you shake your wrist, or when you push a button).
• Charging is easy - the charging cable works on any USB port or USB wall charger, and has a magnetic charging "plug" that attaches to the side of the watch.  The watch charges in an hour or two, depending on how low the power level was when you started the charge cycle.  Be careful with your charging cable, by the way - they aren't selling extras until after they fill the full backlog of watch orders. 

In short, I'm very happy with the Pebble watch so far and can't wait to see what apps become available for it in the future. 

New Help for Old Project Management Problems

Over the years, I've done a lot of jobs.  One thing that's remained constant: Effective project management - especially in a team-oriented project - can mean the difference between success and failure.

Once the project and budget have been approved, the real work of project management begins. Tracking the project tasks and communicating with the team are ongoing efforts that every PM faces. For some time, a PM has had to rely on the same set of tools. With the latest cloud technology, software as a service (SaaS) solutions are available to help the PM stay more organized and connected with the team.

Netsuite

According to PR Newswire, Gartner research states that almost 50 percent of manufacturers will be using some form of SaaS by 2015. Netsuite is a cloud-based resource management system that provides leaner manufacturing and resource planning to stabilize your company. It gives you visibility across the business in real-time. With this level of visibility to the various processes, you have better manufacturing resource planning and management. You can pay close attention to forecasting and inventory management. Netsuite gives you demand planning capabilities to create a more finely tuned forecast. Using sales projections, trends, seasonal fluctuations and historical data, you can come closer to your on demand inventory needs.

Asana

This tool provides a lot of organizational flexibility. The PM has various ways of slicing-and-dicing multiple projects and teams to allow better collaboration and communication. The PM has control over how workspaces, projects and tasks are organized for visibility and easier tracking, according to lifehack.org. Workspaces are work areas that can contain one or more projects and tasks. They can be shared with multiple people. Multiple workspaces may be created to reflect different areas of focus. One workspace could be created for a new-product development effort and another for marketing campaigns for an existing product.

Projects are created within workspaces and can be either public or private. A public project may be accessed by everyone who has access to the workspace, like when you need the entire team to access smaller projects for only a subset access.

Tasks are the work units of a project and they also can be created as public or private. The comment system within tasks allow a greater collaboration between the team members without relying on email. A project history of task communication can be stored this way.

Once a project manager understands how to set up workspaces and projects in Asana, it can become a tool to make collaboration, communication and tracking easier for the PM.

Smartsheet

Smartsheet is structured like a spreadsheet with rows and columns and is flexible and customizable that integrates with Google Docs. This is a good choice for specific project management needs that other solutions don't offer. Spreadsheets can be organized in folders or workspaces. Each sheet can be shared with multiple people. The reporting capability is more than just formatted output. Reports can be made to be drilled-down into or used interactively, such as in what-if scenarios. Smartsheet is supported by a number of articles, videos and tutorials. There are webinars available to learn more about how to customize the product to meet your needs, according to reviews.com.

Google Docs

If you are on a limited budget, or if you need a minimal project and resource management system, Google Docs may have enough capabilities for you and your team. This is a hybrid office automation system with word processor, spreadsheet, graphics capabilities and the ability to collaborate on documents. While not organized specifically for the PM, the pieces manage a small project. Just don't expect automatic Gantt chart creation or resource leveling across tasks, according to lifehack.org.

Project managers have dealt with tools that came out 20 years ago or more. Even updated, they don't take advantage of the features that the cloud offers. These tools give the PM more flexibility and choices on how to set up and manage their projects.

​Those are a few options, in a nutshell.  If you're using something different that you absolutely love, or you have real-world feedback on any of these options, please leave a note in the comments..

Stand up & ditch bad habits: Ways to improve creativity & productivity

Productivity — an overarching term, for sure, and your productivity can be increased or reduced by various internal and external forces. Whether it's an ambitious personality, lifestyle habits, elevated work expectations, or an innovative environment, the level of sustained work productivity is influenced by a lot of factors. For creative professionals such as writers and graphic design experts, maximizing creativity and improving productivity are essential for a successful career. The good news?  Changing your environment and breaking norms can help enhance your productivity and creativity.

Stand-Up Desks & Walking Stations

Most of us have experienced the fatigue of sitting at a desk in front of a monitor for a long time. Extensive studies confirm that a sedentary lifestyle is linked to a shorter lifespan and increased risk of certain diseases, high-cholesterol levels, blood clots and inflammation. Prolonged sitting is harsh on your body and exhaustive, and those of us who are slaves to desks and computers are reminded of the health risks.  So what can we do about it?

I've been thinking of replacing my traditional desk with an adjustable-height desk.  I think it would be a fun change of pace, but I've also been reading about some of the health benefits of standing desks.  For example, Dr. Ron Joine (vice president and medical director of GlaxoSmithKline's environmental health and safety group) says that standing while working stimulates the mind, increases energy levels and can burn up to 200 calories per day.

Change is good, too.  I've been reading that it is healthy to switch things up by using different ways of working, such as standing desks, traditional desks, walking stations (treadmill desks) and desks with yoga balls. The notion is that by moving around more, your productivity and efficiency will increase, which also boosts morale, optimizes health and sparks creativity.

For a long time, I've found that if I stand during conference calls I am more focused and the calls are not only more productive, they tend to wrap up more quickly - less wasted time, in other words.​

Performance Norms & Habits

Sitting vs. standing is only one dimension of this - you can reduce periods of low productivity by breaking bad habits, revamping your routines, changing up norms and setting more aggressive goals for yourself.

As a leader of a team, raise "the bar of performance expectations by setting elevated goals" and measure performance progress, says Forbes.com contributor Jack Zenger, a strengths-based leadership development expert. You can start by assessing where you are -- give yourself an honest performance evaluation. How would you rate your ongoing level of productivity? Mike Myatt, Managing Director of N2grwoth, tells Forbes.com that he gives himself "hourly gut checks." For 20 years, Myatt asks himself every single hour, "am I doing the most productive thing possible at this point in time?" If the answer is no, change gears an focus on something productive. I think this is an interesting approach to make accountability a person habit.  If you want to do this, a timer (on your computer, or a kitchen timer) can help remind you to ask yourself this question.

Create new, productivity-enhancing norms such as:

• Fuel up in a healthy way and nourish your body with nutrient-rich foods. Focus on how superfoods make you feel. Eating sugary or fatty foods in large portions makes you feel sluggish and dulls the brain. Sharpen your mind and creativity with vitamin and nutrient-rich fuel.
• Maintain a productive workspace that's free of distractions and clutter. Keep your desk minimally decorated and you're less likely to "drift off" while you work. Is your desk optimized for work and focused intention?
• Make small changes to feel refreshed and eliminate the mundane. Recharge by changing anything from the type of coffee you drink and lunch you eat to the light and sounds of your surroundings. If you have the luxury to work from home, add some variety by occasionally working at the library or different coffee shops as a change of scenery.

​What about you?  Do you any tips and tricks that help you feel more productive?  Have you switched to a standing desk?  I'd love to know what is working for you.