Empowerment Notes: Growth Project

How To Be Productive At Work

Many of us who do not own businesses have no choice but to hold a job.  It is important to the wellbeing of us and our families.  If we do not work we may not eat.  It is how a majority of us feed our families.  Our focus should always be to do the best we can at our jobs.  Unfortunately, you would be surprised to know how many people don't do the jobs that they are paid to do.  I have seen people fast asleep at their desks.  I have also seen people take so many cigarette breaks such that smoking has allowed them a total of two lunch periods.

If we truly appreciate our jobs we will make the most of it.  We will increase our value at work if we become more productive.  Instead of focusing on how unproductive we are, here is how we can make a difference at work through being productive:

Get to work early.  It is great to get to work on time.  It is better to be early.  How great would it be for you to get to work even before your boss does?

Leave work late.  Now we don't need to do this all the time, but we should try to stay back late in order to get our work done.  Don't leave today's work for tomorrow.

Take on extra projects.  Does your company have a need that is not being met?  You try to meet it.  If put forth the effort and do not succeed, you may still be recognized for those efforts.  If you do succeed, however, you will be a star.

Stay healthy.  Productivity takes energy.  Find out the best way for you to increase your energy.  Eat well, exercise often, and get enough rest.

Be diligent.  Find out how you can get the job done faster.  This will allow you to get even more done.  If you are focused and you do not waver or find excuses to not do the work, you will get more done.  Create new ways of doing your job.

In our current economy we have to do what we must to maintain and even increase our worth at our jobs.  Too many of us are losing our jobs.  Some of us lose our jobs for reasons we can't control, but others of us lose our jobs because of irresponsibility and a lack of being productive.  Companies are in business to produce.  Are you on the team in aide of that productivity?

4 Ways I Use Social Networking Websites

If you know anything about the internet and have spent some time on the World Wide Web you would have heard of Social Networking.  Social Networking sites are great places to meet people and as the title says "network".  Is that the only use for popular Social Networking websites such as Twitter, Facebook, and StumbleUpon?  These websites have many uses and as they continue to exist their users have created their own unique reasons for using them. 

Here are a few of my reasons for using Social Networking sites:

1. Keep in touch with family and friends.  Much of my family is spread out across the the world.  I have relatives in the Caribbean, UK, Canada, and the United States.  Social Networking websites like Facebook allow me to easily and inexpensively keep in touch with them.
2. Maintain a log of what I do everyday.  One of my favorite uses is to keep a detailed log of what I do everyday.  For this I like using Twitter.  I actually have my Facebook updates feeded to Twitter.  I can look under all my Twitter posts to figure out what I was doing or thinking about doing on a specific day as well as questions I asked (very important).
3. Ask questions and find out new information.  As indicated above this is pretty important.  I can pose questions to Twitter's millions of users and get a fairly decent answer pretty quickly.  The answers I get vary from pretty vague to very specific and I can look at the answers at anytime as they are saved under the "replies" tab in my profile.
4. Bookmark great articles from around the web.  I often find websites around the internet that are interesting and bookmark them on StumbleUpon.  It is fun sharing the bookmarks with others and seeing the type of websites and blogs they find interesting.  When websites are bookmarked in StumleUpon they are reviewed and you can get a decent idea of what the site is about and if it is worth visiting.

These are a few of the ways I use Social Networking websites.  They may not be the conventional uses or what the websites were created for, but what matters most is that as a user I find them useful.

How do you make use of Social Networking websites?

Learning Productivity From Blogs

Focusing on the important things can be hard.  Actually, focusing in general can be hard (for me at least).  Yet, making sure to focus and accomplish the important tasks in your day is a key part of time management and being productive.  There is a great deal we can learn from reading productivity blogs.  Books are useful references as well.  For example, I am sure you have heard of Stephen Covey and his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People or First Things First by the same author.  While Steven Covey teaches great lessons in his books, they are not the easiest books to read and not very entertaining (don’t take my word for it, try reading it yourself or buy it on CD).  So, instead of searching out these books, I prefer trying to learn useful and innovative time management tips from blogs I discover searching the web.  I have been fortunate to discover some pretty good blogs on the subject.  Two of my favorites are lifehacker.com and Putthingsoff.com.  They are not new blogs and you have probably come across them already.

Lifehacker.com and Putthingsoff.com are not only informative but entertaining to read.  I find Putthingsoff.com to be quite comical.  The moment the page loads you may want to chuckle at the little kitty on the front page.  There are a lot of cartoon images on the blog, I guess to help readers relax while they soak in productivity tips.  It is described as a “laid back productivity blog”, and there isn’t a more true description.  Lifehacker.com is bit more technology focused than Putthingsoff.com is, but you can still gain from its advice.  If you use gadgets to help you be more productive, lifehacker.com is a great read.

I will be posting articles about productivity and time management in the near future, but until then it may be a good use of time to check out these two blogs for some direction and advice on being focused and using your time wisely.

I welcome your comments – please add your own productivity blog or search results to this list.