Study reports of productivity in remote work are all over the internet. According to The New York Times, some studies link remote work with productivity declines of 8–14%. Others show remote work increases productivity by 13% to 24%. You’re probably thinking, what affects remote work productivity levels? The answer is a combination of many aspects that begin at the workplace. For example, when you work in an environment with poor lighting, you’ll experience headaches and eyestrain. What happens? Your focus and motivation reduce, affecting productivity. But if the workspace is comfortable, you ..read more

There are two things all dependable productivity systems have in common. First, they are focused on getting “stuff” into the system quickly and easily. Second, they are focused on processes rather than tools. Collect stuff. The advantage of having a personal productivity system is you become less dependent on your brain to remember things. This means you can externalise whatever is asked of you and then make decisions about what needs to be done and when. This means that you collect stuff in a trusted place for later processing. Introducing the UCT. Your UCT is your Universal Collection Tool ..read more

Travelling for work can have some upsides. You get to see a little more of the world and interact with new people. Yet, it can also be a challenging experience. It’s not unusual to find that the pressure to juggle multiple tasks while contending with travel triggers experiences of stress, burnout, anxiety, and depression. Not to mention that disruptions to your productivity may affect your workplace efficacy. This week’s article is written by the wonderful Katie Brenneman. Thank you, Katie, for writing this for me. One of the solutions to ease the burden of travelling for work is to delegate ..read more

Are business partnerships worth the effort? A report shared in Forbes reveals partnerships boost revenue, create new opportunities, and boost innovation. For example, Microsoft generates 95% of its commercial revenue through a partnership ecosystem. What a successful partnership with suppliers or other entrepreneurs does is bring two or more talents together, improving productivity and fuelling innovation, which are vital in sales generation. Now that you’re aware of how big and small businesses can benefit from B2B collaborations, should you form a partnership with any company out there? One ..read more

Most people believe that their success is down to their inner virtues and skills. After all, you can’t fake your way through college degrees and will come up short if you rely on charm alone during tests for jobs. This week’s article is written by the wonderful Katie Brenneman. Thank you, Katie, for writing this for me. However, you may be surprised to learn that your physical appearance also has an impact on your productivity and success. Put simply, when you feel good about the way you look, your self-confidence rises, and your productivity increases. This doesn’t necessarily mean you are d ..read more

And why you should keep a notebook too. There is a wonderful story in Walter Isaacson’s Leonardo Da Vinci’s biography about when he was writing Steve Jobs’ biography. Steve told Walter that he had all these documents, notes and emails from the 1990s that he would retrieve and share. Several weeks passed, yet there was no sign of these documents, so Walter wrote to Steve asking him if he had found them. Steve replied he had found them, but he and his best engineers at Apple had been unable to retrieve them from the discs. As Walter writes, “Paper turns out to be a superb information-storage tec ..read more

Author Jeffrey Archer flies out to Portugal each December to begin a seven-week writing marathon. Over the following few weeks, he will start writing at 6:00 am and will write throughout the day every day. At the end of those few weeks, he will have the first draft of his next book written. Jeffrey Archer is not measuring the number of words he writes each day. He focuses on being at his desk and writing by 6:00 am. He knows that if he follows that routine for the following weeks, he will have a finished manuscript by around mid-February. It’s a simple formula based on just turning up daily ..read more

Our world needs creative people. These people change things; they find solutions to seemingly impossible problems and make the world interesting. Yet, for some reason, because they often work differently from the way “normal”people do, we label them as having ADHD, Autism or other similar conditions. What did Leonardo Da Vinci and Isaac Newton have in common? They both had what we call severe ADHD today. They struggled to complete projects; their attention was all over the place, and they often completely forgot to sleep. They worked all hours of the day and would go days and months researchi ..read more

Retirement is usually associated with slowing down a little and enjoying your free time. This doesn’t mean you don’t want or need to stay productive. After all, you’ll have day-to-day tasks to take care of as well as personal projects. This week’s article is written by the wonderful Katie Brenneman. Thank you, Katie, for writing this for me. This doesn’t mean you need to put yourself under the same productivity pressure as you may have experienced at work. Nevertheless, adopting actions that help keep you on top of tasks can support your personal growth and empower you to enjoy your retiremen ..read more

Over the last few years, there has been a backlash against what is commonly called “Hustle Culture” — burning the midnight oil and working seven days a week to achieve a desired outcome. Hustle culture is undoubtedly unhealthy and can lead to burnout, yet sometimes, if you want to accomplish something big, the only way it will happen is to put the hours in. Apple’s first operating system and Microsoft Windows weren’t created by people working nine to five hours and resting on the weekends. These world-changing systems were created by obsessed people sitting in a room, eating pizza, and only s ..read more