How do workers choose what’s most important when their to-do list now goes on for pages?  What administrative services have been cut which create unexpected time sinks? How do they produce quality work when they are distracted with worry? On the other hand, what if your people are suffering from too little to do? 

If recent years were a boon time, and there is a sudden dearth of phone calls, emails and meetings, what should your team do with all their free time? The lack of structure can be very disorienting to workers who have gotten into the habit of being completely reactive.

The result? Harried, anxious workers who feel paralyzed and end up buried in a rut of disorganization and inefficiency.  Managers can combat the time management backlash by concentrating on the Five F’s with their team:

            Lack of sleep and poor nutrition can be compensated for with caffeine, sugar, power bars, or the pure will to concentrate, but nothing substitutes for genuine physical health. Sleep, exercise, a proper diet, and regular checkups maintain your physical body. This is a basic, essential priority, which provides the well of energy from which you draw the strength to accomplish everything else you need to do. Some people neglect their own physically health for so long that they forget what it feels like to be healthy and rested. Making the commitment to your physical health will have an immediately....

Once the world gets quiet, does your mind wake up? Do you start ticking through your to-do list the minute your head hits the pillow? A churning mind can’t sleep; and a mind without sleep doesn’t function.  Sleep deprivation is miserable--it steals energy and productivity from the next day — so you don’t enjoy your waking hours either, and the cycle starts all over again.

So, how can you reclaim the pleasure of a good night's sleep?  First, I want to ask you a question: Do you think of sleep as the end of one day or the beginning of the next? I find that......

Good time management is not about creating a perfectly organized life in which nothing ever goes wrong. It’s about having the tools to get back in control whenever you get thrown off track. Prepare to recover from the most common time management traps, with the following quick solutions.....

             More and more people are working from home these days—as freelancers, budding entrepreneurs, or even as virtual employees of a larger company.  Working from home often brings with it a lot of freedom – the freedom to make decisions, to set hours, and to determine your own workplace culture. Yet the home-based office has its share of challenges. Space is limited. It’s hard to be productive with unstructured days. You do not have the same support that comes with working at a big company, and the lines often blur between home and work.         

            With just a little organization, you can be productive, efficient, and enjoy all of the advantages of working from home. Here are a few of the core strategies I give my clients to ensure they get things done and feel effective.........

Has organizing your computer files been on your to-do list since last summer? Is there a writing project you've been avoiding like the plague? What about those networking phone calls you've been meaning to get to since the job market got so shaky? What is it that causes you to procrastinate...........?

Several years ago Life Magazine conducted the Great American Weekend Study, and discovered that 47% of the people surveyed wait until Thursday night or later to plan their weekends.  I don’t even need to tell you what happens when we wait too long to plan---the weekend slips through our fingers and before we know it’s Sunday night, and we didn’t do anything fun or refreshing....

In these times of extraordinary economic uncertainty,  most people I talk to are having a lot of trouble focusing.  Worry and anxiety seem to flood the brain with fear adrenaline—making it hard to concentrate, remember anything, put two sentences together, feel effective.  So what do you do about it? First of all, go easy on yourself—taking some comfort in the fact that everyone is in the same boat. Then, get back to basics..........