doug smith training

The trouble with production quotas is that they cause people to do anything necessary to meet them. Cheat. Lie. Cover-up. Bend the rules. Break the rules...if the stakes are high enough and the pressure is strong enough people may feel forced into doing whatever it takes to win. That's not winning. Leaders do need to measure success and we do need to identify key activities on the path to that success, but we must constantly be careful about the means as well as the ends. How strong is your focus on quality? How committed are you to integrity? Are people on your team rewarded for supporting the team? The problem with competition is that someone always loses. It does not need to be your team. -- doug smith

Now is the time. My mind does wander, and when it does I lose a sense of being in the moment. Oh, I'm sure the thoughts are important, and flying all over the place looking for the next brilliant idea. Being here right now though is better. Moments that we show up for will belong to us forever. So that they'll be there for us when, you know, we should be in THAT present moment. It's not a perfect science. It's not a perfect world. Some moments DO matter more than others. I'm working to live right here in this moment. How about you? -- doug smith  

As quantifiable as it may be, productivity is in the end, highly subjective. "How can that be?" "We define importance. We define what matters. You can decide how much is enough." "But it's all numbers. It's all measurable..." "Yes, once you've decided what matters. Once you've define the quality you want. None of the productivity matters unless the quality is there." "Well, my boss wouldn't agree with that very much." "How much do you like working for your boss?" "Not very much..." You might disagree. Many people do. But consider this: would you rather have exactly what you want, or a whole bunch of what you don't want?  I thought so. -- doug smith

Have you ever gotten stuck pondering the nature of things and wondering about all that work in front of you? Why do it now? What does it matter? Is anyone paying attention? Performance isn't everything but it sure does pay the bills. Be the poster for productivity, the best example your team members can think of for getting things done, and they'll get more done to. If that's what you get paid to do...it's up to you to come thru. -- doug smith

If you can do more when you're not interrupted then go where you won't be interrupted. Another room. Another building. Another floor. Go for a walk. Go for a ride. Find a place where you can hide. And then -- get stuff done. Will people object? Maybe...but only until they realize that is how you get stuff done. -- doug smith

How often do you set goals? While goals do come in all sizes, from task level to life-changing, I set a few goals each day. Honestly, most ARE task level: "follow-up with Kellie..." "Send syllabus to Holly..." "Invoice client XYZ by 3:30..."  but they are still goals. Finding the right number (fifty is too many!) and prioritizing the order is and essential part of planning and it all starts with setting goals. Write it all down, and defer what does not matter. Focus on what you care about now. Setting goals for each day keeps your days productive. Even if (especially if!) one of those goals is "take a walk and rest..." -- doug smith

Productivity = do what can be done with what is available. And if you add in leadership? If you add in leadership productivity becomes on time, on budget, and to quality specifications. Isn't that what high performance leaders do? -- doug smith

  A quick and meaningful productivity assessment. If the video is not available, you can download the assessment here :  To join the Darren Daily newsletter's daily mentoring click here .

Do you work best indoors or outdoors? Many of us spend years (yikes, decades!) of our lives working in doors, in little boxes. It often cannot be avoided. I seldom could ever tell my boss that I was just going to work at the beach or out in the woods or up in the mountains. And yet, so much of my best thinking takes place in nature. If thinking is part of your job, how often do you get to think outside? Even when we are inside, it we can create environments that help us achieve our goals by having the right tools nearby. You can also improve your own productivity by listening to the right music (you decide what the right music is.) Create an environment conducive to achieving your goals. -- doug smith

As a bonus, I finally learned how to pronounce this author's name. As a practical use of 8 minutes this is hard to beat - a great video with fascinating visuals and an easy to understand summary of a book that's not an easy read. I'm sharing it so of course I can remember to watch it again later. It's also time to read the book again. Here's the video: Four Important Factors: Focus Freedom Feedback Four % Challenge It's well worth checking out the other quality material available at The Productivity Game .

From the Life Hack Bootcamp series featuring the cheerful and direct Demir & Carey comes this 13 minute video offering useful tips for creating teams that are productive and less stressed. You could call it Knowing When to Manage and When to Get Out of the Way. Good stuff!

Do you remember a time when it was hard to let go of something, long after you knew it was not you'd intended? There have been times that I've thought too much about something, long after thinking about it could do any good. I'm getting better at recognizing those moments. It takes work. It takes recognition. Process, decide, and let go. Note to self: If you keep re-deciding you'll never get anywhere. -- doug smith

Tackle that feeling of overwhelm using a practice, simple tool. Situation: Overloaded with tasks. Getting delegated to from multiple sources and you suspect someone may be overloading you. Bonus: Helps you prioritize based on who assigned the work Allows you to add and identify what you own because you assigned it (to yourself OR to others) How it works: Add a column for "Per" for the person who assigned you the task. For example: Priority Scale: A = Urgent, important, and due today B = Important but not urgent C = Not due soon, more tactical than strategic D = Delegate or delete these Additional Uses: A way to show the people who assign you work how much they assign you and also what else you are working on. Makes you assign a realistic priority value instead of calling everything an A (urgent AND important.) When deployed among your team you can see if the distribution of work is optimal or needs adjusting. -- doug smith ...

Four words that cut thru tons of nonsense: it's up to you. -- doug smith

Entrepreneur Magazine frequently offers useful time management tips. Here are 10 that are helpful. Don't worry too much about the revolutionary declaration that most time management advice is useless -- that would make THIS advice useless, too. It's not. It all depends on how you apply it, particularly with the discipline that you apply it. All time management tips depend on people DOING them with the discipline to say NO to distractions and low-payoff items. Focus first (and most) on the HIGH PAYOFF items and you are likely to be happy with the results. Here are the tips for additional review and application: Carry a schedule and track all of your activities, conversations, actions, and even thoughts  - for a week. Identify your productive vs. non-productive times. Assign time for your important activities. Put it in your schedule! Plan to spend at least 50% of your time in the activities and actions that produce most of your results. Schedule time for interrupt...

High performance leaders must take care of their time. Here's a quick video with 20 quick time management tips. (Unfortunately, the video has been removed from youtube. However, I did summarize the tips so I'll leave this post.) Since the video does go quickly, here are the 20 tips: Create a daily plan Peg a time limit for each task Use your calendar Use an organizer Know your deadline Learn to say "no" Target to be early Time box your activities Have a clock visibly placed before you Set reminders 15 minutes before Focus Block out distractions Track your time spent Don't fuss about unimportant details Prioritize Delegate Batch similar tasks together Eliminate your time wasters Cut off when you need to Leave bugger time in between Video Source:

Which comes first, happy or productive? Many people will say that happy comes first, and that happy team members are more productive. I don't dispute that because I've seen it happen. Some of the best team members I've ever worked with brought an inner joy to their work that became contagious. They were more productive, and soon other team members around them were also more productive. I think that it is also true that productive team members are happier. It's possible to create more joy in the team when the people involved are highly trained, skillful, attentive, and focused on making customers delighted. The wonderful side effect to this great work is great joy. High performance leaders do what they need to do to create this great joy. It comes from knowing your team members, from helping them when they need it, from making sure that they have the help and resources that they need, and most of all, from appreciating their results AND their efforts. The bes...

How big of a deal is stress in your life? We all endure a certain amount of stress. Depending on what's going on in your work and in your life, you may be going thru more stress than you want. Not all stress is bad (setting an ambitious goal, for example, adds a kind of good stress) but too much stress can slow you down. How much of your stress are you choosing? Certainly, not all of your stress, but could you admit that some of it is the result of you doing too much worrying, or waiting too long to work on that big goal, or taking what the boss said too personally, or procrastinating when you knew the deadline was going to be tough? You know as well as anyone else the answer to what to do about the stress you cause yourself: let it go. Stop it. Relax, breathe, focus, and then get to work. When we do that, when we control the stress that we can control, when we choose "no" to a piece of self-selected stress, it makes handling the tough unchosen stress much, much e...

What do you forget to delegate? It's important. What we forget to delegate we get to keep doing, and to keep too busy to get everything done. If you feel frenzied, if you feel overwhelmed, it could be that you are missing opportunities to delegate. Do you know what we don't even think about delegating and so we forget about it?  We forget to delegate the things that we enjoy the most. We don't even consider sharing what we enjoy the most because, well, we enjoy it. We crave it. We hold onto it. But what comes so naturally to us that we don't even need to think about it could be a motivating learning opportunity for someone else on our team. I can still remember when my boss at Aon started sharing his favorite tasks with me. They were so easy for him that he do them in his sleep. Since they were new to me I had to give it thought. In the process, I developed new skills and he freed up vast amounts of time to work on things more strategic. Delegate tasks you enj...

The best way to stop a task from causing stress is to finish it. -- Doug Smith