People sometimes ask me how I manage to stay on top of all of my work when there isn’t a boss at home telling me to do so. I joke (half-joke, really) that I can’t stomach the idea of having a boss hanging over my shoulder so I’m motivated to stay productive!

The truth, however, is that I’ve learned a lot of little tricks over the years that keep my productivity on track. Here’s a few of those tips:

• Stick to a schedule. One of the things I love about my work is that my schedule is flexible. Despite this, I try to stick to one more often than not because that’s the way to stay productive.
• Set goals. It’s so cliche but setting your own goals really helps you to stay on top of productivity.
• Hold yourself accountable. Do productivity checks throughout the day to make sure you’re meeting your goals. Make a phone appointment with a friend to touch base about how productivity you are (or aren’t) being.
• Use technology in a productive way. Your mobile phone, social networking sites and access to the Internet are all great tools for productivity but only if you’re careful not to let them distract you.
• Cut yourself some slack. Sometimes it’s okay to slack off a little bit. If you beat yourself up when you do, you’ll actually reduce your productivity.

Mostly being productive is about knowing what you want to get done and finding a way to motivate yourself to do it. Do you have any specific productivity tips that have helped you out?

Tags: business, freelance, kathryn vercillo, productivity, time management, tips

One of my articles on productivity was recently featured in a blog carnival. There were a lot of other great posts in the carnival that you might want to check out as well. The carnival is all about internships, careers and employment so the articles all relate to business in that way.

My post was about employee monitoring. It was included in the general employment section. Other posts also included in this section were on the following topics:

• Leadership
• Interviewing
• Social Media
• Improving your writing
• Toughest jobs in America
• Getting promoted
• Working from home
• And even avoiding jury duty

There were also other posts related to jobs and internships. This is such an important topic right now so hopefully these articles will be useful for people!

Tags: blog carnival, business, employment, kathryn vercillo, monitoring, productivity

I am one of those people who isn’t ever going to be satisfied by doing a single job for the rest of my life. I’m not even particularly satisfied doing only one job at a time now. Instead, I’m one of those people who wants to do a million different things with my life. In addition to work, I want to pursue hobbies and generally just have new experiences.

There are a few things that I’ve found to be really important if you have this type of attitude about life:

• Staying productive. You aren’t going to get a lot done if you can keep your productivity levels high.
• Enjoy downtime. In spite of the fact that I believe in being productive, I also believe that you need to intersperse some downtime into your productivity. You have to relax if you’re going to be able to keep doing lots of things.
• Staying inspired. I read a lot of blogs and books that inspire me to stay productive and to stay creative.
• Enjoy varied activities. It’s too tough to keep going and going at a single type of thing. To enjoy more diversity in your life, you need to immerse yourself in activities that are truly different from one another.
• Accept that you can’t do some things right now. You can pursue every single hobby right this minute. Accept that and enjoy what you can do right now.
• Keep a life list. I have a list of things that I want to do, see and experience throughout my life. I keep it posted where I can see it. I check things off it (and add to it) regularly. When I’m planning out my schedule for the week or month, I check the list to see if I can do any of those things.

Maybe I want to do too much but I’ve found ways to make it possible to do more with my life. I believe in having full days!

Tags: business, kathryn vercillo, life, personal growth, productivity, time management

Just another quick note to let you know that one of my productivity blog posts was included in the Struggling Bubmling Newbies blog carnival recently.

My post was on the topic of dealing efficiently with email. So many people waste time by mishandling their email. That can be easily avoided if you implement an email routine. I hope that my tips helped with that.

This blog carnival is filled with all different types of tips that could be helpful to both individuals and businesses. There are thoughts on everything from internet marketing to cash back credit cards. It’s worth a gander if you’re looking for some new blog reading for today.

Tags: blog carnival, blogs, email, kathryn vercillo, productivity

Just a quick note to point out that a couple of the answers that I provided to questions on Yahoo Answers were chosen as the ‘best answer’ for their question.

The two most recent ones were:

• A question about the benefits of employee monitoring. There are pros and cons to monitoring your employees as a manager or business owner. When done correctly, there can be a lot of benefits. I discussed those in this answer and hopefully answered that question thoroughly.
• A question about the technology of productivity. There are so many different tools that you can use to be productive in your office or home office. Having the right technology really helps you out with productivity. However, you also have to be self-motivated enough to stay on task to be productive. That was the gist of my answer to this question.

Has anyone else answered questions on Yahoo lately?

Tags: answer questions, kathryn vercillo, productivity, questions, Yahoo, Yahoo Answers

Managers have a complicated role in the office place. They have to accept the rules that are handed down to them from their bosses. They have to then enforce those rules among the people who work beneath them in the chain of command. It can be really stressful. It can also be really rewarding if it’s a position that you enjoy.

Managers may find the following three tips helpful when working with their employees:

1. Keep an eye on employees’ activities but involve them in decisions. It’s important to engage in employee monitoring to make sure that employees are following the rules and staying on task. However, this can lead to employee resentment. That resentment is countered when you include employees in the decision-making process at work. Do this and you’ll find yourself working in a happier office place.
2. Push for the right technology. An office needs up-to-date and correct technology to run efficiently. If you notice that your office needs something important that it’s missing (such as an online backup system) then you should discuss this with company heads to make sure that you get the things that you need.
3. Learn little tricks to avoid wasted time. The less time that you waste, the less stressed out you’re going to be. This will make your work as a manger easier. Learn little tricks to waste less time. For example, use services like doctors that are close to the office instead of far away to reduce commute times.

What else should an office manager know to run the office efficiently without getting stressed out?

Tags: business, kathryn vercillo, management, office, productivity, work

I’ve been doing a lot of research and writing lately about the topic of being more efficient with email. In discussing this topic with people, I’ve discovered that the majority of people who feel that they are not efficient with email have the same few concerns.

Those concerns are:

• Lack of understanding about their email program. Most of these people feel that they don’t fully understand the different things that they can do to sort, organize and utilize their email accounts most efficiently.
• Too-frequent use of email. One of the most common complaints from people is that they check email all of the time which reduces productivity in other areas of their work.
• Taking too long to respond. This means two things. First, people feel like they leave emails in their inboxes too long before answering them which clutters the inbox and stresses them out. And second, they feel like writing up their responses takes too much of their time.

What I have come to believe after talking with these people is that the solution is a fairly simple one:

Set aside time each day to deal with email.

During this time, you can commit to answering everything that comes through your inbox in a focused and efficient manner. You can also commit a certain amount of time each day to learning a new tool or trick for your email. (A good one is to learn about email templates which will reduce your response time!) And then you can forget about email the rest of the day.

Tags: efficiency, ehow, email, how to, kathryn vercillo, productivity, simplify, tips

There are a lot of technological devices out there which have the potential to make us more effective in our productivity (such as unified communications tools). Unfortunately, a lot of these devices can be a double-edged sword; they offer a lot of ways to decrease our productivity too.

A really simple example is the use of instant messaging programs. They can increase productivity by making communication with team members more immediate and more efficient. However, if you have IM programs running all day then you may get distracted from your focus and actually lose productivity.

This was highlighted by a couple of the Twitter responses that I got yesterday when I requested for people to send me their top productivity tips. A couple immediate responses were:

• @BerksBess “turn off Twitter (and the Internet as a whole)”.
• @cdolwagen ”set aside specific time slots for email, web browsing and Twitter. Use a timer so you don’t overrun ”

In other words, you really need to maintain some level of self control when you are making use of technology and Web 2.0 tools. The level of productivity that is possible with them is truly within the power of the person using them.

Smart people are going to maximize their use of these tools without overusing them. The other tips that I received via Twitter from those types of smart people were:

• @kashicat ”For creative people with ADD, doing work in small chunks (i.e. light at end of several tunnels) can help get it done.
• @Ivenetian When you feel yourself drifting…say to yourself “back to work”!

So, back to work it is!

Tags: business, efficiency, kathryn vercillo, productivity, self-control, Technology, twitter, work

One of the reasons that I work for myself is that I really hate having a boss. I hate having someone telling me what to do and looking over my shoulder to make sure that I’m doing it correctly. For this reason, I am naturally turned off by the idea of employee monitoring in the office place. I tend to feel that if I’m getting done what I’m supposed to be getting done then my boss shouldn’t be worried about what I’m doing with the rest of my time.

However, I’ve been reading a lot lately about how to run a productive office. Because of this, I’ve been reading a lot about employee monitoring. And I’m actually starting to believe that employee monitoring has the potential to be a good thing in some businesses. It’s not only good for the bottom line of the business but it can actually improve employee morale when it’s used correctly.

Basically, employee monitoring can be used to generate more employee teamwork and to get feedback from employees about the state of productivity in the office. The one thing I do miss about working in a big business is that sense of feeling like you’re part of something bigger. Working with a team can make it more fun to get your work done and it’s often the case that you end up contributing to something that’s more than the sum of its parts. When employee monitoring is used to foster that, it can actually be a really good thing for everyone involved.

Tags: business, employee monitoring, kathryn vercillo, management, office, productivity

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the issue of productivity. I have particularly been interested in the way that productivity is encouraged in small businesses. The small business offers an interesting dynamic because it’s got a sense of community to it but it’s still got a boss and employees. The sense of community tends to increase the employees’ personal investments in the business and to drive up productivity but the fact that there’s still a boss always causes a little bit of resistance on the part of employees.

I think that one of the most important things that a small business can do to increase productivity is to work on promoting that sense of community. Although the boss may set the rules in the place and may even do things like monitoring employee internet use, the employee needs to feel that he or she has a real say in what’s going on within the small business. That feeling of being needed and valued will cause the employee to want to contribute in a meaninful and productive way to the business.

The first thing that a boss should do to increase productivity in this type of setting, then, seems to me to be to focus on increasing his or her own productivity first. (You can do this easily with a 5-day productivity plan.) This allows the boss to not only improve productivity but also to identify ways in which employees may also improve productivity. Setting this example is a great starting place for creating a foundation of trust within the business and moving everyone forward into more productive work together.

Tags: productivity, small business, work