Business & Career

Here’s a little trick to keep your brain working on your most pressing projects – even when you’re not. All you have to do is expose yourself to your current challenge just before you head off to lunch, the gym, a meeting, an errand, the shower, whatever. For example, Writing a blog post for your business?  –> Sketch a draft, or even just a title, before you go. Want a [...]

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How’s your professional image? Does it convey a true sense of your talent and expertise? Or does it distract potential customers/employers and undermine the impression you make? Whether you’re looking for more customers, a promotion or a new career, you need to avoid these common mistakes if you want to create a great impression. Developing a professional image takes a little preparation and personal organization, but you’ll gain huge dividends. [...]

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In this mission we’re going to do some power career planning or business planning – depending on your goals. If you want to change career or start a business then this mission is a great place to begin. By the end of these 30 minutes, you’ll have gained useful insights into finding your passion, and have created a mini career plan or business plan for realizing your career or business [...]

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If you wish you could vaporize your paperwork, then you’ll love this mission. We’ll organize those towering piles of paper and help you get back on top of all your paperwork tasks. Remember: you only need 30 minutes for the basic mission. Extended Options are below. If you’re new, you might like to start here -> 52 Organizing Missions. Get Organized Mission #36: Organize Your Paperwork Step 1: Make Three [...]

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You may not be thrilled with the way you manage time in your business life. On the other hand, you may not want to invest precious money, energy, thought and – yep, even time – into finding a whole new time management system. If you’d just like to get more done in your business day, follow the 5 easy steps in this mission. PS Next week: Time Management: How To [...]

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This week I had the pleasure of being interviewed about organizing your office on the Small Business with Prue MacSween show on Sydney’s Radio 2GB 873AM. We chatted about: How to avoid piles of paper and inbox overflow. Solution: make quick decisions. How to organize your desk for better productivity. Solution: use my ‘real estate’ model of office organizing. Whether you should start again when your backlog is too overwhelming. [...]

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If you want to increase productivity, motivation and mental clarity, one of the best things you can do is to create an effective workspace. So in this mission, we’ll follow 3 steps to transform your work zone into an organized office. Remember: you only need 30 minutes for the basic mission. Extended Options are below. If you’re new, you might like to start here: 52 Organizing Missions. Get Organized Mission [...]

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I’m going to make 12 fresh starts in 12 life areas over the next 12 days. I don’t expect to succeed at everything, but I want to give a bunch of things a try. Join me! Day 1: Personal Development My Day 1 Fresh Start was to raise my weights in Body Pump class for biceps and shoulders. Report: ✔ Raised weights on days I’ve had Pump class. Day 2: [...]

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If you have a question about a post, personal organization, decluttering, simplicity or goals, simply post your question on the blog. If it’s of broad interest I’ll do my best to answer helpfully in this Q & A ‘column’. And of course if you have insights of your own, feel free to share them as well. NB: Questions may be edited for brevity.     Q: There’s a fellow manager [...]

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The 12 Days of New Year’s Resolutions This is Day 3 of The 12 Days of New Year’s Resolutions for Better Personal Organization I’m spending 12 days posting ideas for new year’s resolutions you might like to choose for yourself. Each day focuses on a different life area. Remember: go for progress, not perfection. Following is an edited extract from the introduction to Module 3: Career & Work in Get [...]

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For most of us the workday consists of 2 activity types:  ‘Out There‘ and ‘In Here‘. Out There are meetings, emails, conversations – interactions with others to communicate, advance projects and solve problems. In Here are little buds of creation, thinking and expression – conflations of knowledge, talent, idea and experience that often produce the most important contributions to the work we do. They may be code, writing, design – [...]

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Last week I attended an event with businesspeople keen to make connections. Now I’m no power networker, but I’m a pretty good observer, and I noticed countless instances of people missing opportunities simply because they weren’t organized. Here are the top 5 mistakes they made …   Top 5 Mistakes Made by Disorganized Networkers 1. Having too few business cards. If you love your cute business card holder that accommodates [...]

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Okay, so the title’s a smidge disingenuous. What I’m suggesting is that you abandon the tactic of email ‘checking’ – scanning subject lines and sender names, reading what catches your eye, sending the odd reply, all in a haphazard fashion. Why you should avoid ‘checking’ email 1. You double up effort and waste time Checking involves scanning, selectively opening and half-reading emails. But it leaves most message-related tasks incomplete. You [...]

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