Work Smarter!Staff Professional Development

June 5, 2014

What is Working Smart?

Boosting Your Brain Function

Tips for Working Smarter

Brainstorm

Agenda

Work: A job or activity that you do regularly to earn money; the place where you do your job; the things that you do as part of your job. (Miriam Webster)

Smarter: Very good at learning or thinking about things; showing intelligence or good judgment.(Miriam Webster)

Working Smarter: An empowered state of habitually and strategically achieving more goals, more often.-Visa Development http://vista-development.com/ws/working_smart.htm

What Does Working Smarter Mean?

Stephen Covey tells a story about a woodcutter who’s saw gets more blunt as time passes and he continues cutting down trees. If the woodcutter were to stop sawing, sharpen his saw and go back to cutting the tree with a sharp blade, he would actually save time and effort in the long run.

What does this mean? Having a balanced program for self-renewal in the areas of our life: physical, social/emotional, mental and spiritual.

Why Work Smarter?To Boost Your Brain Function

http://blog.bufferapp.com/5-ways-to-get-more-done-by-working-smarter-not-harder

Attention Span◦ On average our brains are only able to focus for

90 minutes and need at least 20 minutes rest.

Why Work Smarter?To Boost Your Brain Function

http://blog.bufferapp.com/5-ways-to-get-more-done-by-working-smarter-not-harder

http://blog.bufferapp.com/5-ways-to-get-more-done-by-working-smarter-not-harder

Boost Your Brain Function Take a Nap

Take a Nap!

Research indicates that when memory is first recorded in the brain, it is ‘fragile’ and easily forgotten, especially if the brain is asked to memorize more things. By taking a nap, you are pushing memories to the “more permanent storage” preventing them from being “overwritten”.

Study of participants that did remarkably better on a test following a nap vs. those that did not sleep.

Boost Your Brain Function Take a Nap

http://blog.bufferapp.com/5-ways-to-get-more-done-by-working-smarter-not-harder

By spending time in nature, it helps to reset our attention span and relax our minds.

Experiment by Daniel Goleman (author of Focus: The Hidden Power of Excellence) studied the difference of walking down a busy city street vs. a quiet park.

The level of attention needed to navigate a busy street is high enough that the walk doesn’t let the brain relax to reset our focus levels.

Boost Your Brain Function Spend Time in Nature

http://blog.bufferapp.com/5-ways-to-get-more-done-by-working-smarter-not-harder

Work Smart Tips

Be Happy! Learn to maintain a positive state of mind.

Shawn Anchor – American educator, author and speaker known for his advocacy of positive psychology.

http://www.ted.com/playlists/60/work_smarter

Work Smart Tip

Don’t Check eMail First Thing…

◦ Your brain gets overwhelmed with information and ideas, and your personal objectives and goals start to slip.

◦ Leave emails to early in the afternoon.

Work Smart Tip

http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2014/01/15/how-to-perform-at-your-peak-every-day-10-tips-for-working-smarter-in-2014/

Prioritize Top 3 Goals

◦ Prioritize your top 3 Goals for the day first thing or the last thing of each day for the next day.

◦ You can remember 3 things to do in a day relatively easily.

Work Smart Tip

http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2014/01/15/how-to-perform-at-your-peak-every-day-10-tips-for-working-smarter-in-2014/

Meetings◦ Stand Up meetings

On average 34% less time than stand up meetings. Sitting is the ‘new smoking’.

◦ Walking Meetings Need to grab a few extra steps to reach 10,000?

Schedule walking meetings for your next 1:1.

(http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2014/05/work-smarter-for-shorter-meetings-stand-up.html)

Work Smart Tip

Get Moving!

◦ Get up and stretch◦ Take a break - go for a 5-10 minute walk◦ Get a cup of coffee or water◦ Attend a fitness class at lunch

Work Smart Tip

“Your ability to make great decisions is a limited resource.”

Conserve your Decision-Making Energy at Every opportunity.

◦ Become disciplined about not paying attention to non-urgent tasks until it is essential: Turn off phone during meetings. Don’t expend energy thinking about a project until you

have all the information you need. Delegate

Work Smart Tip

http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2014/01/15/how-to-perform-at-your-peak-every-day-10-tips-for-working-smarter-in-2014/

Protect Quality Thinking Time

◦ If you’ve got a particularly challenging issue or project, devote 30 to 60 minutes a day, or several hours 1-day a week (block the time on your calendar).

◦ Find a quiet space in your office area to work.◦ Turn off all distractions (email, phone ringer, etc).

Work Smart Tip

http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2014/01/15/how-to-perform-at-your-peak-every-day-10-tips-for-working-smarter-in-2014/

How Can you Avoid this?

Single – Task◦ Is there really such a thing as multi-tasking?

◦ Our brains can really do only one thing at a time.

◦ Multi-tasking between 2 activities takes the same amount of time as it does to do a 1 task at a time.

◦ Have 2 priorities? Do them 1 at a time!

Work Smart Tip

http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2014/01/15/how-to-perform-at-your-peak-every-day-10-tips-for-working-smarter-in-2014/

Take Care of Yourself – Carve out Down Time

◦ Take your vacation time.◦ Unplug! Do not check your email messages

while on vacation.

Work Smart Tip

http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2014/01/15/how-to-perform-at-your-peak-every-day-10-tips-for-working-smarter-in-2014/

Recognize Your Accomplishments◦ No matter how small, or how large – celebrate!◦ What do you do to recognize achievement?

Work Smart Tip

http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2014/01/15/how-to-perform-at-your-peak-every-day-10-tips-for-working-smarter-in-2014/

Allow your brain to recharge Respect the attention span Take a Nap Be Happy Prioritize your tasks Think about different ways to have your meeting Get moving Think about when you do your best thinking – and save that

for decision making Schedule project and concentration time in your calendar Think about if you can really multi-task Take your vacation time Recognize your accomplishments

Work Smart Tips - Summary

What are Work Smart Tips you have used?

Why have they worked?

Brainstorm