Get..Set...Go

We all get 24 hrs in a day. Yet, some of us race ahead and are able to manage a lot of things and some of us struggle to get things completed.What is the differentiator here?
It is productivity. The MBA students will be in a tight situation in the next 1 year.
We will have lots of things to do in very less time.
So, one of the classes for the Career Advantage Program yesterday was the "Productivity Workshop". The class was conducted by a Queen's MBA alumni, Ann Gomez who is the founding president of Clear Concept Inc., a company that works with both corporate executives and professionals to enhance their workplace productivity.Ann's corporate background includes working for a management consulting firm and for a pharmaceutical company.

Based on inputs from Ann and my observations, here are some activities for me to improve on my Productivity

-Force yourself to take a decision.
-Use the "5 minute" thumb rule and act on the activity now.
-Plan and allocate your time.
-Disciplining oneself is the key to success.
-Put a deadline on your work everyday. That'll help you pace yourself.
-Identify the big rocks and pebbles in your life.
-Remind yourself of the goals everyday.
-Eat healthy.The body is like a machine.
-Allocate some room for flexibility in your schedule.
-Categorise and batch your activities: Classes,Job Search,Fitness,Blog, Council, Personal.
-Maintain a small diary to keep a list of activities.
-Avoid Multitasking.Research has shown that brain can concentrate on only one task at a time.
-Summarize what you have learnt each day.
-Meet deadlines. Your professional reputation depends on your ability to meet deadlines.
-Resist that temptation,desire and discipline yourself
-While writing emails, set the expectations, be clear and concise, use bulleted points, and use the "No scroll" rule.Write always in the active tense, avoid using red flag.
- In management consultancy, there is no tolerance for mistakes in the slide presentations.So, ensure that you take care of that.
-ABCs of Networking: Appropriate,Brief,Clear and compelling


Voice Mail Tips
-Structure your thougts
-Provide high level details only
-Minimize extraneous information
-Identify yourself: Leave contact information
-Speak Slowly
-Clearly State your request