Even the most organized office can have a nest of tangled cords hidden behind a desk or cabinet.  Now, this may not affect your day-to-day operations, but when it’s time to upgrade or change a piece of equipment, we never want to deal with this, do we?

Today I have two tips that will lead you to a more organized office. 

First, be sure to check out Dotz Identifiers.  They are nifty little color-coded contraptions that slip onto each end of a cord, so you can quickly and easily remove the proper one when disconnecting a piece of equipment tied up in a maze like the one pictured above. 

And now on to my second tip…

How to best contain that mess and create a more organized office?  Check out this creative solution:

You likely have a few spiral notebooks lying around anyway, right?  This is the most economical solution I’ve ever seen for corraling cords.  Bonus benefit: you’ll feel like MacGyver when you implement it!

I have had the good fortune of personally meeting and spending time with Dr. Edward Hallowell, one of the top ADD psychiatrists in the world.  This best-selling author has first-hand experience in the crazy busy lifestyle that so many of us are now in. His incredibly insightful book, Crazy Busy, was recently expanded into a hugely popular audio program by Nightingale-Conant, and he has appeared on Oprah five times, which, of course, is pretty cool.

I’ve learned so much from Ned about my own Crazy Busy propensities and challenges, and these lessons also apply perfectly to my Crazy Busy clients!  

Here is one of my favorite concepts from the book - I’ve summarized it briefly in case your attention span is as short as mine!

F-State vs C-State

F-state is when we’re frantic, frenzied, forgetful, fearful.  And perhaps using some other choice words beginning with the letter F.

Here’s an example – you’re running late, racing to a meeting and realize you: a) forgot to bring the paperwork you need for the meeting and  b) your car is running extremely low on gas.  How do you feel? And how do you react?  When we’re in F-state, we’re dangerous! This “mode” can apply to anytime in our workday, when we’re feeling overwhelmed and all over the place. In F-state, we don’t do our best work.

C-state is when we’re calm, cool, collected, careful, and courteous.

This might occur when you start off your day with a clear desktop, knowing exactly what you’re going to accomplish for the day, feeling fresh and motivated. C-state is when you are likely to get high-quality work done,  and though we all drift to F-state at times, having an awareness of the difference helps to bring us back to C-state, where we are most productive.

Want to learn more?  Grab a copy of Crazy Busy today!  I’d love to hear what you think of it.

Tired of managing all those passwords?

If you spend any time online, you’re likely selecting a user name and password at least once a day, right?  Whether you’re shopping, visiting online forums, or viewing photos of your nieces and nephews, the quicker you can access your passwords, the more productive you’ll be.

But finding those passwords quickly can be one big pain in the you-know-what, because we’ll find ourselves wanting to use the same word for all of the sites so we don’t forget them, yet for many of us, it can be a challenge and time suck to manage several different passwords.

Some of my clients choose to track their passwords in an Outlook contact card, or a Microsoft One Note tab, or even in a mobile device (although I don’t recommend that one unless you can password protect it).  The shortcoming with each of these solutions is that they are device-specific, so if you are away from your computer or mobile device, you’re out of luck.

If you are seeking a simple, safe place to keep different passwords, check out www.passpack.com, a secure site that holds all of your passwords in one simple format, and the great news is, it’s free! 

Just think – no more sticky notes on your monitors or unprotected excel spreadsheets.  Check it out and let me know what you think!

It’s only been a couple weeks since I began using Twitter, the micro-blogging tool that is my latest addiction. And perhaps yours, too!

After a few days of following the fascinating activities and opinions of online marketing greats like Guy Kawasaki, Tim Ferriss, and Gary Vaynerchuk, I began to fear that Twitter would negatively impact my entrepreneurial productivity.

Fortunately, this helpful article by Elliott Kosmicki introduced me to some tools tools within the Twitter environment that will help enhance my productivity – and perhaps yours, too. Thanks, Elliott!

You probably don’t realize that sometimes you hinder your own productivity.  It’s OK to admit – we all do it.  And usually without even realizing what we’re doing.

Sometimes when there is an important, ugly, or scary project looming,  we get stuck.  And because we don’t know where to begin on that scary project, we’ll create an excuse – which we then fully believe!  I mean, we accept that excuse: hook, line & sinker!  As a professional who values the “trusted advisor” role I serve with my clients, it is usually fairly easy for me to identify when this happens and to diplomatically help a client see it for himself.

Here’s a recent example:

While working with a client yesterday, it became clear to me that there was a barrier to her progress on one of her top goals.  In her mind, this barrier was sizable.  And she was thoroughly convinced that it was responsible for significantly impeding progress in a certain area of her business for over three weeks.

The barrier?  Her desk. 

She was in the process of setting up a new home office and she wasn’t confident about what kind of desk she needed.  As a result, she was using the dining room table for working, filing, and piling.  Due to their unappealing appearance, her file cabinets were inaccessibly hidden in an upstairs closet.  She felt very unsettled and was stressed about the impact this setup was having on her business and her family. 

Because I deal with such a variety of clients, it was easy for me to quickly identify that this was a self-created barrier, and an easily removable one.  With just three questions about her work preferences and how often she accesses certain materials, we were able to quickly create a list of requirements to help her narrow her purchase options.  What was overwhelming her a few minutes prior was now very do-able.  Success!

You don’t need an expert to guide you through being stuck – sometimes a friend can be an objective observer and get you into action.  If you have neither handy, there’s a fantastic tool called The Strategy Circle, created by Dan Sullivan of The Strategic Coach.  If you live a digital existence, you’d like this tool in its software form, but it’s just as powerful when done on paper.  Here’s a photo:

Strategy Circle

The philosophy behind the Strategy Circle is that “all those things that oppose our goals are actually the raw material for achieving them.”  Instead of brainstorming solutions to a problem, you instead list the obstacles.  And it’s usually pretty easy to come up with a list of what’s in your way, isn’t it?  For each obstacle, you then develop a strategy, and the resulting strategies lead to creating your result.  This is a very simple too.  (Remember, “simple” does not always equal “easy”!)

Before you comment that you don’t have the time to use such a tool, consider that just 3 super-focused minutes on a problem that you truly want to solve can generate some great solutions.  Or at least get you un-stuck and into action!

Do you have any suggestions for getting un-stuck when you’re impeding your own productivity?  I’d love to hear them!

Like many entrepreneurs, I’m naturally distractable.

As a result, I am generally enthusiastic about every new tool or trend I discover. Perhaps you can identify with the Look-There’s-Something-Shiny! Syndrome from which many of us suffer.

Despite my typcial enthusiasm for the new and fun, I was resistant to social bookmarking.  Since I spend my days teaching entrepreneurs how to eliminate distractions, I’m sensitive to the time-wasting potential that some social media tools provide. 

Not familiar with social bookmarking? Or maybe – like me – you’re familiar with the term, but know nothing else about it. Could you explain the concept to someone? The team at Common Craft can – check out their 3 minute video below.

See the benefits?  And the power social bookmarking gives you?  Definitely not a time-waster. 

Even if you are super tidy with your “Favorites” in Internet Explorer (or whatever browser you use), you’d never have the power that tagging gives you.  Add to that the idea that I can benefit from others’ tagging efforts, and can access all marked sites from any internet connection, and I was sold!

There are many social bookmarking sites to choose from, but I immediately hopped on Del.icio.us, signed up, and began bookmarking away.  Give it a try and tell me how you enhance your productivity through social bookmarking!