ed and optional attendees. It could be as simple as "Jane will give a budget update and John will give us a dry run of the Cunningham presentation" From this statement it is clear that both Jane and John must attend the meeting. Everyone else will play the role of listening to the budget update and being the audience for John. So if you know all about the budget and you have already heard the presentation five times, you probably aren't needed at the meeting, so don't attend. Score one for productivity.

3. Get Trained

Stop fighting your tools; Stop wasting time fighting the auto-

Dealing with Office Distractions, Part Two

Unnecessary Work

Unnecessary work is a silent productivity killer in the office environment. By unnecessary I don't mean that the work should never be done, but rather more important work should take precedent. These tasks are the small things, the "zero" time activities that can consume your work day if left unchecked. Some examples that come to mind include dealing with email, attending meetings and battling with common office applications.

There are three simple things that you can do to combat time leaching activities.

1. Get Disciplined

Email encroaching on your day? Here's a simple solution.... Stop checking it. Yes, you heard me right, stop checking your email. You can't read or reply to something you have never opened. Now before you jump into the antisocial deep end, allow me to qualify my statement. Stop reading and responding to email as soon as it comes in. Set specific times to read and respond to email. Resist the temptation to respond immediately, be disciplined. If you are using Outlook you might as well go in and also turn off the feature to notify you when a new message arrives. You don't care when a message arrives, you'll be checking email at five till the hour now. Email is like the bathroom door after Uncle Frank visits, it is best left unopened as long as possible.

2. Get Organized

One of the best ways to tackle marathon meetings is to be organized. If you are the organizer, come with a clear agenda and stick to it. Assign someone to be the time keeper. When an agenda item's time slot expires, move on. Be sure to note what was decided and discussed, but if the agenda calls for 15 minutes for the budget, then it should take 15 minutes. Maybe less, but not more. If you are not the organizer of a time waster meeting and just the victim, all is not lost. Call on the organizer to provide an agenda and time estimations. Stay on them until they show some organization in their actions.

Even with a well structured meeting you still may feel as though your time is being wasted. The root problem here may be that your presence may not be needed in the meeting. Besides identifying what should happen in a meeting, the organizer should also identify who will do what. Have the organizer provide a list of roles for the meeting, along with a list of required and optional attendees. It could be as simple as "Jane will give a budget update and John will give us a dry run of the Cunningham presentation" From this statement it is clear that both Jane and John must attend the meeting. Everyone else will play the role of listening to the budget update and being the audience for John. So if you know all about the budget and you have already heard the presentation five times, you probably aren't needed at the meeting, so don't attend. Score one for productivity.

3. Get Trained

Stop fighting your tools; Stop wasting time fighting the auto-f

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1. Get Disciplined

Email encroaching on your day? Here's a simple solution.... Stop checking it. Yes, you heard me right, stop checking your email. You can't read or reply to something you have never opened. Now before you jump into the antisocial deep end, allow me to qualify my statement. Stop reading and responding to email as soon as it comes in. Set specific times to read and respond to email. Resist the temptation to respond immediately, be disciplined. If you are using Outlook you might as well go in and also turn off the feature to notify you when a new message arrives. You don't care when a message arrives, you'll be checking email at five till the hour now. Email is like the bathroom door after Uncle Frank visits, it is best left unopened as long as possible.

2. Get Organized

One of the best ways to tackle marathon meetings is to be organized. If you are the organizer, come with a clear agenda and stick to it. Assign someone to be the time keeper. When an agenda item's time slot expires, move on. Be sure to note what was decided and discussed, but if the agenda calls for 15 minutes for the budget, then it should take 15 minutes. Maybe less, but not more. If you are not the organizer of a time waster meeting and just the victim, all is not lost. Call on the organizer to provide an agenda and time estimations. Stay on them until they show some organization in their actions.

Even with a well structured meeting you still may feel as though your time is being wasted. The root problem here may be that your presence may not be needed in the meeting. Besides identifying what should happen in a meeting, the organizer should also identify who will do what. Have the organizer provide a list of roles for the meeting, along with a list of required and optional attendees. It could be as simple as "Jane will give a budget update and John will give us a dry run of the Cunningham presentation" From this statement it is clear that both Jane and John must attend the meeting. Everyone else will play the role of listening to the budget update and being the audience for John. So if you know all about the budget and you have already heard the presentation five times, you probably aren't needed at the meeting, so don't attend. Score one for productivity.

3. Get Trained

Stop fighting your tools; Stop wasting time fighting the auto-

u don't care when a message arrives, you'll be checking email at five till the hour now. Email is like the bathroom door after Uncle Frank visits, it is best left unopened as long as possible.

2. Get Organized

One of the best ways to tackle marathon meetings is to be organized. If you are the organizer, come with a clear agenda and stick to it. Assign someone to be the time keeper. When an agenda item's time slot expires, move on. Be sure to note what was decided and discussed, but if the agenda calls for 15 minutes for the budget, then it should take 15 minutes. Maybe less, but not more. If you are not the organizer of a time waster meeting and just the victim, all is not lost. Call on the organizer to provide an agenda and time estimations. Stay on them until they show some organization in their actions.

Even with a well structured meeting you still may feel as though your time is being wasted. The root problem here may be that your presence may not be needed in the meeting. Besides identifying what should happen in a meeting, the organizer should also identify who will do what. Have the organizer provide a list of roles for the meeting, along with a list of required and optional attendees. It could be as simple as "Jane will give a budget update and John will give us a dry run of the Cunningham presentation" From this statement it is clear that both Jane and John must attend the meeting. Everyone else will play the role of listening to the budget update and being the audience for John. So if you know all about the budget and you have already heard the presentation five times, you probably aren't needed at the meeting, so don't attend. Score one for productivity.

3. Get Trained

Stop fighting your tools; Stop wasting time fighting the auto-

not more. If you are not the organizer of a time waster meeting and just the victim, all is not lost. Call on the organizer to provide an agenda and time estimations. Stay on them until they show some organization in their actions.

Even with a well structured meeting you still may feel as though your time is being wasted. The root problem here may be that your presence may not be needed in the meeting. Besides identifying what should happen in a meeting, the organizer should also identify who will do what. Have the organizer provide a list of roles for the meeting, along with a list of required and optional attendees. It could be as simple as "Jane will give a budget update and John will give us a dry run of the Cunningham presentation" From this statement it is clear that both Jane and John must attend the meeting. Everyone else will play the role of listening to the budget update and being the audience for John. So if you know all about the budget and you have already heard the presentation five times, you probably aren't needed at the meeting, so don't attend. Score one for productivity.

3. Get Trained

Stop fighting your tools; Stop wasting time fighting the auto-

ed and optional attendees. It could be as simple as "Jane will give a budget update and John will give us a dry run of the Cunningham presentation" From this statement it is clear that both Jane and John must attend the meeting. Everyone else will play the role of listening to the budget update and being the audience for John. So if you know all about the budget and you have already heard the presentation five times, you probably aren't needed at the meeting, so don't attend. Score one for productivity.

3. Get Trained

Stop fighting your tools; Stop wasting time fighting the auto-format "feature" in Word, just ask some one for help. There are plenty of resources online and at your local bookstore on every major software package. You can also take a course on that problematic software at a community college. Ask around your office for help with the application. If it is a Microsoft Office product ask a friendly person with the title Administrative Assistant. They would be the underpaid, under appreciated people who know all and for whom in their absence the business would suffer a sudden and firery death. (If you can only remember one special event a year, don't remember your birth day or anniversary, remember June 4, Administrative Assistant Day. The admins of the world are nodding their heads right now in agreement...) Administrative assistants are a great resource and often know all the little tricks inside the Office applications. Be sure to not just barge in, they have other work to get done too. A friendly email would be a good place to start.

Once you actually get some training on that troublesome application you may find that those once annoying features are actually fairly clever and useful. Of course you may be more angry, but the discussion of expensive software gone bad is for another day.

In conclusion, I hope you have come to the realization that you can take control of your productivity. Unnecessary work can be headed off at the pass with just a little work on your part. And who knows, with all this extra work you are getting done now you just might be up for that next raise.

Till next time.

--Wizkid