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Productivity

5 Ways To Survive A Task Explosion

Have you ever found that there is a time when your life is suddenly frantically busy? So much that there are not enough hours in the day to accomplish everything. I’ve heard this called a Task Explosion.

I think explosion is an apt description, because for me it always happens suddenly, I never see it coming, and it sends me reeling across the landscape.

I’ve had a couple of these happen this past year. A couple frantic all-hands-on-deck to get product out the door, coupled with family demands and suddenly everything is turbulent.

by Laura Earnest•November 27, 2023

Time Management

Time Management 101

Managing time is the basis for all productivity systems, yet the systems assume people already know how to do time management. This is not a fair assumption. Most people don’t know how to manage time, but turn to productivity systems to help them.

by Laura Earnest•November 13, 2023

Doing Time Compression Right

One of the ways to get things done faster is to use time compression: set a tight deadline and then pare down the task at hand to the bare essentials.

by Laura Earnest•October 30, 2023

Productivity

5 Things To Do When You Hit A Productivity Wall

It’s funny. When we have all the plates spinning in the air, we never intend for any of them to fall. But when you’re spinning plates, it’s easy to hit the productivity wall.

by Laura Earnest•October 23, 2023

Procrastination

The Three Types of Procrastination

I’ve seen over and over that we procrastinate on something because deep down it goes against our core beliefs or because we know it’s a waste of time. I think there is a third type of procrastination: where we procrastinate because at some level we can’t accept the larger meaning of our actions.

by Laura Earnest•October 2, 2023

Productivity

5 Reasons To Use Checklists

Checklists are a great tool for productivity. They can save a lot of time and prevent mistakes, rethinking, and missing steps. Yet many people don’t use them. Here are 5 reasons to get checklists into your productivity system today.

by Laura Earnest•September 25, 2023April 19, 2024

Productivity

How To Be Productive When Life Blindsides You

There are times when I feel like I’ve been run over with the dump truck of life. And then the truck backs over me for good measure.

But life goes on. So as I am metaphorically picking myself up and dusting off the tire tracks, I need to have a plan. I need to figure out how to be productive when life blindsides me.

by Laura Earnest•September 4, 2023April 19, 2024•2

Software

Generate Text With Excel

Microsoft Excel, which is a spreadsheet meant for crunching numbers, may be the tool of accountants. But I rely on it heavily to help me with text. I generate text using Excel in order to feed data cleanly into systems.
No, Excel is my powerhouse for assembling text.

It occurred to me that people might get some benefit from learning how to do this, so here is my method:

by Laura Earnest•August 28, 2023April 19, 2024

Productivity

You Know You’re Addicted to Lists When…

For a lighter Monday, I thought I would give you the top signs you know you’re addicted to lists:

by Laura Earnest•August 7, 2023

Procrastination

5 Ways To Beat Procrastination

There are many different ways that you can use to beat procrastination. In fact, whole books have been written about ways to get going. Here are the 5 techniques I use most often to get me going:

by Laura Earnest•July 31, 2023April 19, 2024

LEARN HOW TO DO A PRODUCTIVITY SPRINT