Category: Arizona

Take challenges headlong: 7 lucky tips to boost efficiency

Sarat PratapchandranLeave a comment

Kristin Romaine runs CO+FOUNDATION , the world’s first coworking space that provides resources for for-profit and nonprofits to work on a shared space. Located in downtown Phoenix, Romaine is charged with securing resources for this vibrant start-up and she practices “fanatic discipline” to take it to the next level. Romaine and her colleague, Kay Transtrum recently shared a few tips that can make us more efficient at work. I’ve used some of these and they will help you get things done and end your day well. They are all free tools for collaboration that we can easily use and I’ve mixed some of my ideas and Romaine’s to offer a few tips for the work week.

  1. Plan your day the night before. Choose 3 major things that you can do well. If you have others, do it after the first three major ones are tackled. Try to do work in increments of 30 minutes.
  2. Follow success guru, Brian Tracy’s “Eat that frog,” concept that will help you prioritize. I’ve tried it and it really works. Here is a video to get you started.
  3. Invest a couple of minutes between major tasks to play some Web games. Play small games for a couple of minutes and this will interrupt patterns in your brain and help you work efficiently. A friend’s company encourages employees to play ping pong inside the office to get them distracted amid tough projects and tight deadlines. Find something that will work within your space and it does not need to be fancy.
  4. Use Boomerang from GMail to schedule your emails. According to Romaine, the basic service from Boomerang will help you schedule a sizeable number of emails at different times of the day. This will help you work on them at your leisure and have them go to different constituents at different times. The tip here is to use your downtime to take care of emails that you can easily schedule.
  5. Use Google Keep to calendar your tasks and priorities. It is easy to use, free and very intuitive.
  6. Meditate for ten minutes, twice daily. This will help you get refocused and take on challenging tasks with ease. This will also offer you good ideas to deal with conflict and manage people better.
  7. End your day thinking about impact and on a positive note. Romaine and her colleagues follow their own rule: #LDTNMW (Let’s Do It No Matter What).Think of how much your work has moved your organization forward and let’s do it no matter what!

Who you work with matters more than where

Sarat PratapchandranLeave a comment

Neil-G-pic (1)
Neil Giuliano

We live in a frenzied marketplace characterized by clutter, silos, toxic workplaces, overnight successes and a constant glorification of failure.
Former Mayor and a leader in the national LGBT movement, Neil Giuliano, gave clarity about work while addressing the ASU Lodestar Center’s annual nonprofit conference. Here is a reflection of his thoughts.

  1. Think about who you are working with rather than where. Every morning, do you want to go to work with individuals who won’t give you a chance to make a difference? If you are not accomplishing things together, even if you are working for a Fortune 100 company, you are not doing meaningful work. And, your job description won’t get you where you want to go. Reflect on this and I’m sure you will count just a handful of places where people mattered more than the job.
  2. Define yourself first or else others will define you. The only way to define yourself at your workplace is to do what you have to do and ask for forgiveness later. Great leaders  know how to set the tone and culture of an organization but there are just a handful around. So,  take leadership in your hands and do not allow tiny minds in big silos constrain you.
  3. Give time and funds to tinker. This will allow employees to bring in new ideas, improve efficiency and experiment with failure. You need to set apart some risk capital to innovate. Has any employer given you funds to tinker? Highly unlikely.
  4. Break down things at work and create substance. Stay focused and break down complex ideas into simple tasks as this is now the greatest trait in business. A car business owner told me last week that he is having a difficult time managing millennials who spend more time on their smartphones rather on the job at hand.
  5. Stretch, grow and take risks and do not let age constrain you. Even if you are 20 or 60, you need to work hard on constantly creating a better you. Be harder on yourself and make changes fast.
  6. In the end, take care of yourself and reflect again on who you work with rather than where. Leave the marketing and human resource folks to glorify the meaningless where.