Laura Stack's Page
The Productivity Pro, Inc.
http://theproductivitypro.com/blog/
Laura Stack, MBA, CSP, CPAE, is an award-winning keynote speaker, bestselling author, and noted authority on productivity. She is the CEO and president of the Productivity Pro, Inc., and a member of the Speaker Hall of Fame.
How can we execute strategies that are as adaptable to change as the issues they address?
Measure it! What if you could DO less and ACHIEVE more?
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Laura Stack posted a blog post
Six Ways to Ensure a Restorative Workspace: Translating Comfort to Productivity
“A change is as good as a rest.” – Old English language saying, attributed to British poet Andrew Leach. Most of us realize the value of taking care of ourselves. Taking care of, cherishing, and loving ourselves translates into greater productivity. But often, we think of this as something we ...
April 19, 2017
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Laura Stack posted a blog post
Four Ways to Avoid Complacency: NEVER Hit Pause on Your Career
“Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive.”—Andrew Grove, Hungarian-American businessman and engineer. After finally accomplishing a tough task or achieving a long-term goal, it’s human nature to want to sit back and take a breather. “I deserve a little...
April 19, 2017
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Laura Stack posted a blog post
Four Paths to Lean Office Productivity: Can the Just-In-Time Concept Work for You?
“The most dangerous kind of waste is the waste we do not recognize.” — Shigeo Shingo, Japanese industrial engineer. Ever since Toyota invented lean manufacturing, much has been made of its application to all professions, including “desk” jobs. The lean philosophy boils down to this: cut anythi...
April 19, 2017
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Laura Stack posted a blog post
Managing UP: Four Things Never to Do
“One who controls others is masterful, but one who has mastered himself is mightier still.” – Lao-Tzu, Ancient Chinese philosopher. I’m a firm believer in managing up, the process of striving to learn and meet your manager’s needs without he or she even having to ask. Despite what it may sound...
April 19, 2017
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Laura Stack posted a blog post
Subconscious Productivity: Four Ways Your Brain Can Make You More Productive
“Whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish with repetition and emotion will someday become a reality.” – Earl Nightingale, American motivational writer, speaker, and author. It’s well established that, like an iceberg, only a small percentage of a person’s mind is “above the water...
April 19, 2017
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Laura Stack posted a blog post
Standing Out Above the Crowd: How to Toot Your Own Horn
“Become addicted to constant and never-ending self-improvement.” – Anthony J. D’Angelo, self-improvement author and speaker. When I was young and first heard the term “human resources,” it took me a while to figure out what it meant. I wasn’t used to thinking of people and their experiences, e...
April 19, 2017
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Laura Stack posted a blog post
Easy Integration: Getting New Team Members Up and Running Quickly
“Trust is knowing that when a team member does push you, they’re doing it because they care about the team.”–Patrick Lencioni, American business author. Whether functioning as a team leader or a member, at some point in your career, you’ll help integrate new people into your work group. (← c...
April 19, 2017
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Laura Stack posted a blog post
Tapping Into Your SUPERPRODUCTIVITY! Five Rocket Boosters for Success
“Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”—Francis of Assisi, Catholic saint Have you ever been faced with a large task, whereupon you dismissed everything else from your mind, put your head down, and got to work? How often have you “...
April 19, 2017
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Laura Stack posted a blog post
Stress is Only Bad If It’s Bad: Five Instances When Stress Is Good for You
“Adopting the right attitude can convert a negative stress into a positive one.” Hans Selye, Austrian-Canadian endocrinologist. Stress gets a bad rap it doesn’t always deserve. Like millions of us, you’re probably wary of any stress, especially when trying to juggle a reasonable work/life bala...
April 19, 2017
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Laura Stack posted a blog post
Five Hints You Could Be an Underperformer… Even When No One Says Anything
“Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive performance?”—William Shakespeare, British playwright After years of loyalty to an employer, you may assume you’re doing good work even when no one takes the time to say it. Possibly you’ve hit a level of stability after struggling fo...
April 19, 2017
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Laura Stack posted a blog post
Five Tips to Work Productively from Home: Whether You Telecommute Occasionally or Always
“On the fourth day of telecommuting, I realized that clothes are totally unnecessary.”—Scott Adams, American cartoonist. Whether you call it distance working, telecommuting, or freelancing, technology has made working from home more effective and productive than ever before (. In fact, some stu...
September 30, 2016
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Laura Stack posted a blog post
Six Simple Workload Tips Managing Maximum Performance Without Making Work Your Life
Ever since the Millennial generation entered the workforce, we’re seen a resurgence in the idea that “work” and “life” represent two distinct things: i.e., that we can excel at our jobs and still have an enjoyable life outside the office. Although I personally belong to “Generation X,” I’ve bee...
September 30, 2016
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Laura Stack posted a blog post
[TRANSCRIPT] If you have a culture of tardiness, it’s easy to spot. If a meeting is supposed to start at 2:00, it actually begins at 2:15. This culture of tardiness results in people showing up at 2:15 for a 2:00 meeting, because that behavior has been reinforced and rewarded with no penalties...
September 9, 2016
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Laura Stack posted a blog post
Five Reasons to Take Massive Action: Making Busyness Your Business
“Do not wait to strike until the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.”—William Buell Sprague, 19th Century American clergyman. One theme I’ve emphasized repeatedly in my writings is that “busy” doesn’t necessarily mean “productive.” Just because you’re staying busy doesn’t mean you’re acco...
September 9, 2016
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Laura Stack posted a blog post
Change Should Be the Middle Name of Every Business
[TRANSCRIPT] Change should actually be the middle name of every business. In his latest book, Playing To Win, A.G.’s Lafley talks about the five things that every leader should do to execute strategy and get the company to win. And, ultimately, all five come down to change. The companies that ...
August 31, 2016
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Laura Stack posted a blog post
Five Interruptions NOT to Avoid: Why Some Distractions Are Important
“One way to boost our will power and focus is to manage our distractions instead of letting them manage us.”—Daniel Goleman, American author and psychologist Imagine a completely distraction-free office, where you can focus totally and productively, where no one ever calls you, chats outside yo...
August 31, 2016
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Laura Stack posted a blog post
[TRANSCRIPT] Why should you care about being productive? Why do you want to be efficient, organized, use your email correctly, manage your time, set boundaries, say no, and focus on value? It all comes down to achieving maximum results in the minimum amount of time. If you can be more efficie...
August 31, 2016
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Laura Stack posted a blog post
Four Benefits of Overcoming Obstacles: Why Beating the Odds is Good for You
“Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.” Booker T. Washington, African-American educator and head of the Tuskegee Institute. As much as we’re told—and tell ourselves—to reframe challenges as opportunities and...
August 31, 2016
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Laura Stack posted a blog post
Procrastination: Can We Talk About This Later
Laura Stack talks about procrastination. (C) 2016 Laura Stack, All Rights Reserved. www.TheProductivityPro.com
August 15, 2016
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Laura Stack posted a blog post
Four Reasons Why Work/Life Balance is Still Valid
“Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.”—Dolly Parton, American singer, actress, and businesswoman. Recently I’ve seen a lot of “RIP Work/Life Balance” claims, arguing that the concept is dying, if not already dead. Some people state outright that you can no longer ...
August 15, 2016
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Laura Stack posted a blog post
[TRANSCRIPT] So, part of the mindset that you have to get out of is that email have to be living in your inbox in order for you to do something with them. And by the way, you are all looking at me like deer in the headlights. Yes, your email program does this! Most people’s email training was,...
August 15, 2016
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Laura Stack posted a blog post
Learn to say “no” graciously, and make it stick! (C) 2016 Laura Stack, All Rights Reserved. www.TheProductivityPro.com Watch Now:
August 15, 2016
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Laura Stack posted a blog post
Five Ways to Use Procrastination to Your Benefit: A Counterintuitive Productivity Method
“Procrastination is a way of giving yourself permission not to do a perfect job, because usually a perfect job isn’t required.”—John Perry, American philosopher and Professor Emeritus at Stanford University. In the late Robert Parker’s Spenser mysteries, the main character’s girlfriend, psychol...
August 15, 2016
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Laura Stack posted a blog post
[TRANSCRIPT] If you really want to be successful, you have to touch home. You have to pay attention to the people who are right there in front of you. You have to love your work AND love your family equally. How do you have great satisfaction in both, without sacrificing one for the other? I l...
August 15, 2016
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Laura Stack posted a blog post
Five Ways to Acceptance: Dealing with Factors Beyond Your Control
“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”—Reinhold Neibuhr, American theologian. Like it or not, many of life’s circumstances—even within the average corporate office—are beyond our control. T...
August 15, 2016
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Laura Stack posted a blog post
Five Ways to Serenity: How to Dial Down Work Stress and Boost Your Performance
“The time to relax is when you don’t have time for it.”–Sydney J. Harris, American journalist. Despite the many arguments to the contrary, stress isn’t necessarily bad for you. A little stress forces you to get off your duff and try to improve your life. Every good thing that humans have accom...
July 27, 2016
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Laura Stack posted a blog post
The Power Of A Daily 1 Percent Improvement
TRANSCRIPT But, imagine the power if every single person woke up every day and said “what could I do to be one percent better today?” You would roughly double your ability every 70 days. Think about that. Think about the power of how that would compound. It can be something little. It can be s...
July 27, 2016
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Laura Stack posted a blog post
Toward Greater Decentralization: Results from the 2015 American Time Use Survey
“38 percent of workers in management, business, and financial operations occupations, and 35 percent of those employed in professional and related occupations, did some or all of their work from home on days they worked.“—2015 American Time Use Survey, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Recently,...
July 27, 2016
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Laura Stack posted a blog post
Announcing a Rare Public Seminar LIVE with Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro® on 11/2!
At The Productivity Pro, Inc., we average 100 emails a year asking, “When is Laura going to be presenting a seminar in my city?” On November 2, 2016, Laura Stack is presenting a half-day intensive open-enrollment workshop in Parker, CO, so here’s your chance to hear her latest thinking—even if ...
July 27, 2016
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Laura Stack is now a member of Berrett-Koehler Community
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