Deep breathing exercises. Head stands. Talking to yourself. Making funny faces in the mirror. People will resort to testing some pretty far-fetched experiments in the pursuit of greater productivity. Did you know that Balzac drank 50 cups of coffee a day? Or that Demosthenes shaved off half of his hair so he would be too embarrassed
"Failing to plan is planning to fail," - some sources attribute this saying to Winston Churchill, while others refer to Benjamin Franklin, or Alan Lakein, author on time management. Whoever the author really was, his succinct wisdom could help many project managers avoid costly mistakes. It seems that there are many project teams who suffer
Productivity is often times an internal struggle: The Lazy You vs. The Motivated You. The Lazy You says, "It's not due today, let's wait a few more hours to get started." The Motivated You says, "The faster you get this out of the way, the faster you can move on to something even more interesting!"
There has to be an opportunity to accommodate a variety of opinions in order to collaborate efficiently, according to Rurik Bradbury, chief marketing officer at Unison Technologies. Unison provides unified communications solutions to help businesses become more productive with their communications. Aimed at increasing its own productivity, the company was looking for flexible project management
As the Industrial Revolution swept America in the late 1700s to the early 1800s, managers started to become more interested in productivity. Over the coming decades, Congress passed safety regulations that sought to improve working conditions and put a cap on the amount of hours that employees could work each day. At the same time,
With so many productivity books around and so many authors proclaiming themselves productivity experts, it's rare to find a book that dishes out really useful advice and inspires you to change for the better. The book Manage Your Day-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus, and Sharpen Your Creative Mind (The 99U Book Series) is a
So many of us rely on our smartphones to get work done during commutes or to check in on important projects after hours. But as convenient as mobile devices can be, they weren't designed for work productivity. Respondents to our recent mobile productivity survey identified their top stressors when working via their mobile devices. Read
In the previous post, we discussed an essential soft skill for project managers - recognizing and beating productivity killers within your team. We started with ways to deal with unproductive interruptions, which almost 41% people see as the no.1 enemy for their work performance. Now, let’s move on to the productivity battle against procrastination, the
When you are feeling overloaded, instead of pushing harder, a wise thing to do might be to take a short break. As we discussed in one of our previous posts, short breaks can revive your productivity and decrease tension. We looked deeper into the matter and put together some interesting facts, as well as practical
What's more annoying than sitting around in an unproductive funk all day? How about trying to get yourself in the mood to work by trying out productivity tips that have never actually helped anyone? No thanks! (Last week I did a handstand against a wall in the office to "get my blood flowing." It just
Ever since the first smartphone hit the market, mobile devices have become an ubiquitous presence in our lives: entertaining us during idle moments, keeping us connected to our network of friends and family, and, more recently, serving as a valuable tool for work and productivity. In our recent mobile productivity survey, over 850 respondents shared how
Welcome back to the weekly Work Management Roundup, where we collect and curate the standout business-related articles of the past week or so. This time, we lead off with a shocking headline: according to government labor measurements, recent US productivity hasn't been this low since Jimmy Carter was in the Oval Office. Don't believe it? Read on.
If you're looking for ways to improve your productivity, there are plenty of educational resources to be found online. The hardest part about finding new productivity tips is making sure you're looking at something helpful and accurate. We cruised through tons of online productivity resources and made a list of the best links and sites
As more and more knowledge work gets done within a browser, and more work tools migrate to the convenience of the cloud, it makes sense to enhance your browser with extensions that help you get work done faster. We've listed these 51 extensions for Google Chrome that will help amplify your productivity.
My successful friend Robert always talks about a study he read that links happiness to goals. The main point he took from this particular article is that people are happiest when working toward their goals; even more so than when they actually achieve them. It seems to be true, but there’s one thing his familiar motivational
Welcome back to the weekly Work Management Roundup, where we collect the week's best reads in work, business management, and productivity to inspire you to work smarter. This week, we open with three articles that tackle why we're not performing at our best: we lack sleep, we don't schedule time for deep work, and we're addicted to multitasking. Read on!
Many of us start our workday with a quick inbox check. However, this "quick check" may often turn into hours of following up, sifting through tons of e-mails and switching over from one task to another. With Wrike’s To-Do e-mails, you can do it much better and faster, especially now that you can schedule them! Many of us
Ever wonder how successful project teams make it seem so easy? Every team member is engaged, every deadline is met, and every project is a breeze.... Today on Elizabeth Harrin's popular blog, PM4Girls, our CEO and productivity-lover Andrew Filev teaches everyone how to instill new team productivity habits. Read it now and make other people wonder how YOU