Productivity Planner

We all know about a cluttered work environment leads to a cluttered mind. And that causes us to be unproductive, distracted, disoriented and subject to procrastination.

If that’s the case for you, I’ll bet the farm that your computer’s desktop is a mirror image reflection of the desk it sits on. Go ahead, take a look around your computer’s desktop and see what’s opened right now.

Do you have 20 or 30 text notes open, 13 browser windows on 2 different browsers with countless tabs on each currently opened to who knows what? And how about all those other programs? Instant messengers, emails, music and video players, spreadsheets, photoshop, etc etc etc.

If this sounds too familiar, then you are very likely cooking up a recipe for entrepreneurial catastrophe.

Multiple windows, tabs and applications leads to information overload and as a by product, a computer that is likely to crash or at least slow down sometimes to a grinding halt. Leaving them open for days leads to mental meltdowns as you lose track of what you set out to do. This lack of focus can be a death blow to any entrepreneur.

My recommendation to you is to focus on one or two tasks at a time. Each night before you go to sleep, you should wrap up what you’re doing on the computer and put it to sleep, closing all those tabs and browser windows, saving and closing notes and documents, signing off chats, or at least, set them to away or dnd, and finally, quitting the applications.

This will go a long way in restoring sanity, clarity, focus and productivity as you’ll find that in most cases, if you didn’t get to something that day, chances are, it wasn’t important enough to your business anyway.

Terry Is an Entrepreneur dedicated to lifelong learnin [Read more →]

Tags: , , Leadership, Inspiration, Management, Organizational Culture by Chris Russell
No Comments »

Back in the ’80s and ’90s, going lean (also known as cutting the fat, downsizing, rightsizing, getting competitive and any number of other pathetic euphemisms) meant getting rid of that which companies claim are their most important resource: people. However, today, for small and medium sized business (SMB) manufacturers, going lean means something entirely different. It is a way to apply best practices and technology to increase productivity and profits without adding to your workforce.

The Manual Mindset

Let’s face it, small businesses tend to be labor intensive. A lot of things that larger companies do through automation tend to be done manually. There is a good reason for this. Manual processes provide a wonderful level of flexibility. After all, a human being can handle exceptions and problems easier than can a computer program. On the other hand, this flexibility comes at a price. Many of these manual processes tend to take people out of the value stream (those activities within a company that provide direct value to the company such as sales or manufacturing). That is part of the overhead and for many small businesses, the overhead is pretty high.

A Question of Quality

Quality is King; there is no question about it. A product can be cheap or expensive, but at the end of the day, no matter how nicely you fix it up-no matter how pretty the wrapping-if the quality isn’t there, nothing else matters. That goes for your products and it goes for your customer service as well. Consumers remember how they were treated by your company every bit as much as they remember whether or not your product caught fire when they plugged it in or crashed Vista when they installed it on their computer.

Inventory Madness

Having inventory on hand is another way to add welcome flexibil [Read more →]

Tags: , , Leadership, Inspiration, Management, Organizational Culture by Chris Russell
No Comments »

If you recently completed a clutter clearing around your desk area to remove the decorative items, you’re now left with some open space for working. The next question is, how can you set up your desk to be the most productive? Your desk is an important tool.

How can you get the most benefit from this valuable piece of real estate?

Clear space. Plan to maintain a clear area right in front of you, at least the size of a desk blotter. This is the space where you will work on your current project. It should not have stacks of papers and miscellaneous objects occupying the area. When you have finished working on the project for the moment, put all the papers into a folder and back into your project drawer.

Telephone. The optimal placement for a phone is on your left side if you are right handed. That leaves your right hand free for taking notes without having a phone cord cutting in front of you and across your neck. Even better is to have a head set. Then you can type directly into your computer when you’re scheduling appointments or jotting down follow-up tasks.

Computer. Place the monitor directly in front of you but set back further. Since you want to keep the blotter space open for projects, you don’t want your keyboard placed right there. Using a keyboard tray to store under your desk when not in use allows you to keep the blotter space open. You can then still type without twisting and placing stress on your muscles.

Frequently Used Items. What you use on a daily basis should be placed within arm’s reach on the desktop so that you do not have to bend, stand, or swivel in your chair to reach these. A stapler and a small container for pens and pencils would be examples.

Desk Drawers. Those items less frequently used, such as a pencil sharpener, scissors or a tape [Read more →]

Tags: , , Leadership, Inspiration, Management, Organizational Culture by Chris Russell
No Comments »