Less is more

The complimentary Results Curve(tm) eBook is now available--give your team the gift of productivity!

The Results Curve eBook(tm); How to Manage Focused and Collaborative Time is now available. Don't let one more day go by with everyone is being interrupted and interrupting everyone else! Discover a whole new world of productivity inspite of the information overload.

Download The_Results_Curve_tm_eBook

"The digital revolution should make us all incredibly efficient and productive. The tools at our fingertips — easy multimedia production software, instant and free communication around the globe, massive research power without needing to get up out of our chair — should allow us to complete tasks in hours instead of days and leave us more leisure time than we could ever have imagined. And yet this promise of efficiency seems to be just a little beyond where we are right now, somehow always eluding our grip. We can’t seem to get there.

Our work environment is one of great onslaught. We struggle to get done on Friday what we had hoped to achieve the previous Monday. Why is it so difficult to do the things we really want to do?..."

Download The_Results_Curve_tm_eBook now and Keep on reading!

Learn more about The Accomplishing More With Less Workbook at Amazon.com (on which the Results Curve(tm) is based).

Join us in making the workplace a better place

• Join the “Accomplishing more with less” group on Facebook and on LinkedIn.
   
• Connect with me on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter (@pierrekhawand).
   
• Subscribe to my blog http://less-is-more.typepad.com
   
• Join the People-OnTheGo mailing list so you stay updated about future events, articles, books, and related resources: http://www.people-onthego.com
   
• Join our complimentary lunch & learn webinars every Thursday at noon Pacific Time: http://www.people-onthego.com

9 reasons why e-mail is seductive, addictive, rewarding, and anxiety-provoking! Which are your top 3?

How do most of us start our day? When we ask our workshop participants this question, the answer we invariably get is: “on e-mail”. Here are some of the reasons why we start the day on e-mail (and why we keep going back to e-mail every time we hear the beep or when we are at a loss of what to do next) and I would like to hear from you what are the top 3 reasons for you (choose from the list or add your own--post your comment below):

1. Curiosity: We are curious about what happened in the world since we checked e-mail last.

2. Hope for good news: This is the winning-the-lottery syndrome. It may happen to me! I may get this great promotion or great deal or great surprise from someone.

3. Feeling accomplished: Replying to e-mails gives us the feeling that we are getting things done. Each e-mail message answered is like a micro-project successfully completed and checked off the list.

4. Fear of being left behind: We want to make sure we are not missing important information or developments, and potentially losing our competitive edge.

5. Anxiety about outstanding tasks: We cannot relax if we have outstanding e-mail messages.

6. Avoidance: Instead of focusing on more important and usually more difficult tasks, it is easier to be on e-mail.

7. Lack of direction/Need for direction: We don’t know exactly what we should be doing, e-mail give us the answer, at least a temporary fix.

8. Handling urgent stuff: We have to check e-mail because we get urgent requests on e-mail, which need to be handled immediately.

9. Meeting the expectations of others: It is usually expected that e-mails are answered fairly quickly, either by our boss, colleagues, or generally as part of the culture in our organization. If we don’t meet these expectations, we may be seen as “not fully on top of things”.

And there are probably more reasons. All together, these factors make e-mail seductive, addictive, rewarding, and anxiety-provoking, all at the same time!

Now your turn!

Article extracted from The Accomplishing More With Less Workbook Chapter 6 "Every Day is A Fresh Day—reconcile at the beginning of each day."

Black Friday starts now! 80% savings on 5 Microsoft Office 2003 & 2007 Classes!

You don't have to go through this mess to take advantage of this very unique Black Friday offer (which ends Friday November 27 at midnight). You can do it online!

Save more than $140 and get all 5 self-paced classes for only $24.95 (regular price $169.95)

What you get for $24.95

You get The Accomplishing More With Less Workbookand the following 5 self-paced online classes (each 90 minutes, available 24x7, at your own pace, when you need them):

• Managing and Organizing Your E-mail Inbox Using Outlook
• Total Organization
• Microsoft Excel Techniques
• Microsoft Word Techniques
• Microsoft PowerPoint Techniques

How to take advantage of this Black Friday special?

1. You order The Accomplishing More With Less Workbook at Amazon.com ($24.95 + Taxes & Shipping).
2. Once you get your order confirmation e-mail from Amazon, please forward the e-mail to training@people-onthego.com and indicate which version of Microsoft Office you are using (2003 or 2007).
3. We will send you the login for the 5 web self-paced classes mentioned above (your choice of Office 2003 or 2007) at no extra charge. These will be sent on Monday November 30, 2009.

Share with your friends and colleagues and the rest of your team

Share this offer with your friends and colleagues (or maybe get them the workbook as a holiday gift and keep the classes as your own gift) and get this special offer for up to 10 people on your team. If you have a larger team, feel free to contact us to discuss group offers!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Is “e-mail” on its way out? And is “Social Media” taking over?

This is the first post in what is likely to become a series of reflections on the role of e-mail and Social Media today and the upcoming years.

After 15 years of internet, is e-mail hanging on by a weak thread?

E-mail is overused and even abused, and users’ mailboxes are congested--worse than traffic in the busiest metropolitan areas of the world. People are tired of scrolling up and down the inbox and many stopped looking at, and not to mention responding to, e-mail messages except for the urgent messages from their bosses or customers. Reaching people via e-mail (unless you are their boss or customer) has become quite challenging. It is “extreme” e-mail fatigue that we are suffering from. So many things fall through the cracks and so many inefficiencies are invading the work place and our personal lives. Does this sound like “chaos”? Well it is!

Is Social Media taking over?

While Web 2.0 tools (such as blogs, wikis, and Microsoft SharePoint) are emerging as the better alternatives for collaboration and information sharing, in this post, I am interested in focusing on the Social Media platforms and reflecting on their relationship to e-mail today and in the future.

Social media is the new kid on the blog (relatively new compared to good old e-mail).  People are still excited about the Social Media platforms. Even though these platforms are quite busy, they tend to be less intrusive than e-mail, and they give users the ability to scan the feed casually and jump in and respond only when they desire to do so. The expectations are less while the reach is much broader. And these platforms provide messaging functionality (similar to e-mail and Instant Messaging) which seem to get more attention and better response time than the traditional e-mail. 

And now the questions

• Where do you see the future of e-mail versus Social Media?
   
• Will it get to our work life as well (having more structured enterprise Social Media platforms that would include collaboration and social media all in one within the firewall)?
   
• Will the traditional “public” e-mail approach eventually go away?

What do you think of this hypothetical chart showing how the time spent on e-mail (and therefore the role of e-mail) will diminish over the next few years while the time spent on Social Media will increase. E-mail me YOUR  version of this chart (training@people-onthego.com):

 
Graph: Hypothetical hours spent per week on E-mail versus Social Media!

Overwhelmed by e-mail and Social Media? Check out The Accomplishing More With Less Workbook Amazon.com and what readers are saying about it.

 

Invest $25 and get $35, $69, or $99 immediately! But there is a small catch!

Oh well, let us reverse the trends in which investments and returns are sinking and shrinking!

You get a free workshop (value $35 to $99--refer to workshop schedule for a list of workshops) when you invest $24.95 in getting The Accomplishing More With Less Workbook at Amazon.com. But hurry this won't last too long. 

As soon as you get the workbook, please forward the Amazon confirmation e-mail to   training@people-onthego.com, and indicate which workshop you would like to attend. By the way, your free seat will still be valid in the first quarter of 2010 if you don't get to attend your free workshop before then.

These are online live workshops that you can attend from anywhere!

So what is the small catch?

The small catch is that as a result of the breakthrough techniques presented in The Accomplishing More With Less Workbook, which will allow you to get the benefits outlined below, you will have more time to spend money (but please invest it wisely)!

What the Accomplishing More With Less Workbook will enable you to do

1. Better manage interruptions and stay focused on the task on hand until meaningful results are achieved while being responsive to the demands of your team and collaborate more effectively than ever before.
    
2. Work more strategically instead of working harder, methodically manage competing priorities, and learn new and innovative tools that can help you better align your daily activities with your goals.
    
3. Organize and manage your electronic and paper information easily and efficiently via a duplicate process that is practical and doable, instead of having your day “run over” by  information and “low impact” activities.
    
4. Manage stress like never before through purposeful action rather than passive reaction and turn stressful situations into opportunities.
    
5. Understand the obstacles that are stopping you from reaching your desired accomplishments, and take the necessary actions that will lead to growth and transformation, and significantly increased fulfillment.

See what others are saying about the book!

 

How to avoid being overwhelmed and consumed by social media?

In the past, it used to be e-mail and meetings that consumed everyone’s time, and now it is e-mail, meetings, and social media, and not necessarily in this order. For years, in our workshops, we talked about the e-mail overload, and taught ways to overcome the e-mail overload, and now we are broadening the scope to include social media.

So how do you reduce the social media overload?

Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Be Strategic: Don’t just be there, but be there with a clear purpose.
   
• Follow the relevant people: Those that add value and not just chatter.
   
• Stay on brand: One of Jason Alba’s advice that I keep re-iterating.
   
• Reuse: Create high value content and reuse it in all platforms, you know they now all link to each other, so you can more easily leverage your content in multiple platforms.
   
• Time yourself: Don’t just be there indefinitely, make it 5, 15, or 40 minutes (again with a clear purpose)
   
• Don’t treat it like a homework (especially twitter): You don’t have to keep up with what happened when you were gone. What happened before is mostly old news by now.
   
• Remember that the time you spend on it needs to be proportional to the number of people you have in your network (otherwise, it is better investing time to growing your network).

For more tips about managing interruptions (social media and others), refer to The Accomplishing More With Less Workbook now available at Amazon.com (check out the reviews)!

How do you do a book reading and signing "virtually"? Here is how! Join us 11/12 or 12/2

Last week we did it! And we will have it again on 11/12 and 12/10. It is a book reading and signing webinar for The Accomplishing More With Less Workbook which we released recently at Amazon.com. The webinar starts with an intro about the book and how it developed, and proceeds into selected readings about a variety of topics which include:

• The Myth of Multitasking
• Filing messages
• Working strategically
• Starting the day with intention
• The Immediately Priorities Matrix™
• Managing stress

How does the “signing" part work? You might ask!

For those who purchase the book before or during the lunch & learn webinar from Amazon, and e-mail me their info, I "mail" (the good old snail mail) to them a signed card and include a signed gift certificate that would allow them to attend one of the People-OnTheGo online live workshops this Fall (or in Q1 2010 when the schedule is available) at no charge. It was a nice blend of the virtual and real worlds!

The recording of the last book reading is available on Facebook

If you cannot make the live webinars, and you're interested in learning more about The Accomplishing More With Less Workbook and hear about the topics listed above, visit the "Accomplishing more with less" group in Facebook and see the video!

Check out the book reviews on Amazon!

This holiday season, give a different kind of gift!

What is the most precious thing that we all dream of having more of, and yet we find it virtually impossible to do so?

What I had in mind is “time”!

If we cannot create more time, maybe we can find innovative and unique ways to better utilize our time and feel accomplished instead of feeling hectic and overwhelmed and victimized by the information overload.

This holiday season, when you start to think about what special holiday gifts to get to your friends and family, or your colleagues, think outside the box. Think about the Accomplishing More With Less Workbook now available at Amazon.com. This will come just at the right time. The time when they are finishing the year and seeking ways to improve and start 2010 with a positive momentum. It would also be the perfect gift to add to your wish list or even treat yourself to.

By the way, this is what one of our readers indicated in their Amazon.com review

“I opened the workbook thinking - oh just another "how to". I was instantly struck in the first few pages. Set aside the time for the projects (stop the e-mail frenzy and other distractions). I read the book over the weekend and started my concentrated project time on Monday. Wow - did I accomplish a bunch, in only one day. That tip was just the beginning of a new way to work. THANKS”

More from the Accomplishing More With Less Workbook

Download The Accomplishing More With Less Workbook--Table of Contents

Download The Accomplishing More With Less Workbook--Introduction

Download The Accomplishing More With Less Workbook--Extract from first chapter

Special offer, today only (Fri. 10/16): Outlook, Excel, SharePoint Webinars!

Today's special offer not only gives you access to these webinars at the reduced $35 fee, but if you purchase one seat, you get to attend all three at no extra charge.

Once you purchase one seat at the $35 fee (in any of the three Webninars that are taking place next week), you can forward your receipt to training@people-onthego.com and request to be registered for the other two.

Microsoft SharePoint Techniques

October 20, 12:00pm PT, 2 hrs ($35 if purchased today)

Microsoft Excel 2007 Techniques

October 22, 9:30am PT, 90 min ($35 if purchased today)

Managing & Organizing Your Inbox in Outlook 2003

October 22, 11:30am PT, 90 min (35 if purchased today)

Hope you will be able to join us!

Questions? E-mail training@people-onthego.com or call 415.503.1649

iPhone 3G Contest extended: Organize your Results Curve(tm) Lunch & Learn in September--YouTube option available

As many of our readers have requested, the “making the workplace a better place” contest has been extended until the end of September 2009. Here is how you can participate, make your workplace a better place, and be part of the iPhone 3G drawing:

1. Get your team into a conference room (or organize a web conference if your team is virtual).

 

2. Show them “The Results Curve™--how to manage focused versus collaborative work” webinar recording:

 

Here is the abridged version (7 minutes):

 

 

The full version  (15 minutes) is available at the "Accomplishing more with less" group on Facebook.

3. Discuss how you are going to help each other stay focused and how to escalate issues when issues are worth escalating.

 

4. Report your findings:

 

- Either by e-mailing us at training@people-onthego.com (with “Results Curve Contest” in the subject line).

- Or posting your comment in this blog entry.

- Or by posting your findings at the Wall in the Accomplishing more with less group.

 

5. After you report your findings, you will be entered in the iPhone 3G drawing--results to be announced at the end of day on September 30. 

 

Most importantly, you will be the catalyst for constructive change, and you and your team will benefit as a result.

 

Join us in making the workplace a better place! Get started now by scheduling your lunch & learn!