Tag Archives: productivity

TNF #137: Kill your badges

Welcome Professionals…

…I was quite surprised about the positive effect when I turned off the badges on my iPhone. I am talking about these annoying red dots, indicating how many unread messages are waiting.

Long before I had de-activated the new-mail-icon in Outlook and the preview window flying in with every new message. As top management consultants, we must keep focus to get our work done. We must not be distracted from some eradic email.

Until a few weeks ago, I never really spent much thought on the badge notification. But, when I read a productivity blog that strongly recommended getting rid of these dots, I implemented this. What a relief! In hindsight, I must confess that I felt a strong urgency to look at the messages whenever I saw the dots. I am committed to the zero inbox principle and I want to l like to have a clean desk. The red light seems to scream at me: “stop, don’t leave, there is still some work to do – read me!”.

The fix was simple. Just a few clicks in the settings and the badges were gone. The effect was stronger than I expected. I am not only more focused and less distracted. I am feeling more at ease. You just have to try it yourself!

Keep focused,

Malte

TNF #120: Beehive productivity

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Welcome Professionals…

…Have you ever noticed that people around you are influencing your work ethics? It seems to be much easier to work long hours within a room of hard working people than staying late at the office where everybody else leaves at 5 pm.

The average behaviour of people surrounding us is setting the current norm. If we like it or not, we constantly compare ourselves to what we perceive as normal. Even when we are sitting in an empty office that has no distraction at all, our mind may wander to all the colleagues who are already at home. On the contrary, it seems odd to leave when everybody else is still highly engaged and productive.

To pursue our goals, we want to choose our surrounding wisely. Our colleagues, our office mates do matter. Is it really the best idea to choose your home office for some deep work? Or will the mere thought that your children are playing downstairs derail your focus? Some co-working spaces are busy like a beehive, some others feel like a lazy coffee shop.

Wishing you a productive week,

Malte

Thursday Night Flight is brought to you by Malte Müller Professionals. Sharing best practices for top management consultants on topics like communication, client handling, problem solving, appearance, and fitness. Check out www.mm-professionals.com for more material and free resources!

TNF #089: Handicap II

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Welcome Professionals…

…Another week has passed and I still cannot use my right hand. I have to wear a cast for six weeks in total. As announced last week, I will give you a report on my efforts to stay productive.

Having a broken bone is a bummer, but I promised myself I will stay positive and focus on good things to learn. Over the course of the week, I already made some significant productivity gains. I actually made some improvements that I might keep even when the cast is gone.

Here is a list of my productivity adjustments:

Left-hand writing comes out with some readable lines after practicing a bit, but it is still much too slow
Left-hand typing works for a few words, but is also much too slow for longer text
Using the Apple Siri function for a few tasks like making a call, setting a reminder, putting appointments to the calendar and so on is very useful and quick, once I understood which syntax to use
The online dictating function of Siri works much better than the off-line enhanced dictation function and improves over time the more I use it
Setting up shortcuts in the text replacement function of iPhone and MacBook is something that I should have done before
I managed to use my MacBook as the input source for the Microsoft-based computer system in my office, allowing me to dictate text right into word files and also into our CRM system, which is actually much quicker than my 10 finger writing before

There are even some positive side effects, which are quite remarkable:

The inability to take notes during conversations has me focusing much more on my counterpart in both personal meetings as well as in phone calls. It seems I have a much stronger presence in these conversations now.
Dictating a summary after a conversation enables me to focus on the real key lines that are worth memorizing. Though I have to admit that I would prefer to be able to take at least some notes during the conversation, especially on 90 minutes interviews.
Using the dictation function requires me to articulate myself very clearly and precisely and get rid of all these “ers” and “uhs” during verbal expression

I am actually quite surprised what good can come out out of a stupid situation like this. I will keep you posted about for the learnings.

Wishing you a productive week,

Malte

TNF #088: Handicap

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Welcome Professionals…

…Today I’m writing with handicap. Last Sunday, I broke the ring finger of my right-hand in a stupid accident. Of course, this brings some challenges to my work.

I’m a right-handed person. And now I’m not able to use my right hand at all. This is a real bummer to my productivity. When I was 16, I took a machine writing class. I’m actually very quick in blindly using 10 fingers for typing. During interviews on the phone I used to take notes simultaneously within our CRM system. All of this doesn’t work anymore.

I am now looking for better ways instead of doing everything left-handed. I am actively experimenting with various new tools and adjusted processes to overcome my handicap.

I am really curious to know: What are your experiences with this? Have you ever been in a situation where you couldn’t use one of your hands? What did you do to stay productive?

BTW: This text is written by using the dictating function on my MacBook. I will let you know about my improvements over the course of the next weeks.

Waving with my left hand,

Malte

TNF #081: Unsubscribe – getting email right

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Welcome Professionals…

…With the long Easter weekend ahead of us, let me share a reading recommendation for you. Everyone of us writes and receives emails every day, usually a ton of emails. Statistics say that up to 28% of our active working time is dealing with email. To put an end to this waste of time and getting more done, I recommend you read “Unsubsribe”.

Author Jocelyn K. Glei has drawn together some great best practices around email. I am sure you have heard some of them already, but in this condensed form her book is worth reading. It is a quick read and full of tips and tricks. It even has some email scipts for everyday and advanced situations.

Quite insightful was the author’s statement why email checking is actually addictive. So check it out:

Send me an email when you finished reading the book…

Malte

TNF #075: Brain recreation

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Welcome Professionals…

…I went to an event yesterday night on mobility solutions for the future. Speakers came from well-known companies like Uber and Hyperloop One, and also from startups like Cargo Sous Terrain and Imagine Cargo. It was a fascinating journey into ideas of the future.

At the beginning of the week I had actually thought about skipping the event and instead to stay in the office to get some work done. I am glad I decided to attend. In hindsight, it feels like I rather gained some productivity and not like losing a couple of work hours.

I think this is attributed to two effects. First, looking forward to the event in the evening, I felt like I had to earn my right to leave the office at 5 pm, so my whole Wednesday evolved more productive than most days. Second, diving into the future was a recreation exercise for the mind. The speakers shared their dreams about delivering cargo in underground logistics tunnels and shooting transportation capsules through vacuum tubes. Meeting new ideas and meeting new people worked as a wellness session for the brain. Again, it led to a highly productive Thursday – and even fueled a new topic for TNF.

Despite all the hard work we need to deliver as consultants, we need to build in some time for giving our brain some rest, gaining some new impulses and receiving some rewards for motivation.

Enjoy your recreation!

Malte