Organization and productivity go hand in hand. That’s why I’m such a huge fan of productivity expert, Laura Stack, and became one of her certified consultants. Over the past few months, we’ve been covering various aspects of Laura Stack’s Productivity Workflow Formula in our AdminPro Training Series, here in our newsletter, and on our blog. This week, we’re looking more closely at Step 5, Close the Loop, and Step 6, Manage Your Capacity.
Closing the loop means focusing on honing your communication skills, ensuring that the various components of your system work together smoothly, looking for ways to eliminate bottlenecks in the process, and making the entire process flow more efficiently.
You have to be willing to speak up when things are not working the way they need to, but more than speaking up, you need to present possible solutions to the issues at hand. It’s at this stage of your workflow where you have the ability to tighten up your systems so you aren’t just productive, but efficient, too. When you close the loop, you achieve your goals, meet deadlines, keep promises, and become a valued member of the team. This is where we build a lot of trust and respect with our executives because they know we can get the job done.
One challenge of maintaining a productive workflow, though, is managing your capacity to get the work done. It doesn’t matter how productive or efficient you become if you burn out in the process. Managing your capacity means paying attention to the physical factors affecting your energy – sleep, diet, exercise, self-care, etc.
This step is one where assistants often struggle because they are so focused on the other steps of the process and taking care of everyone else first. Yet this step is one of the most important because it’s what fuels you to be able to do the other steps well.
In this week’s feature article, Laura Stack talks about the vital impact sleep has on your overall ability to manage your capacity and be productive. It’s amazing what a difference this one simple change can make in multiple areas of your life. I also encourage you to read an article I wrote called “Taking Care of Yourself: A Path to Focused Self-Care.” We’re also sharing lots of resources on these topics with you on our Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn pages.
To become more innovative, productive, and efficient, you must take proper care of yourself. Focused self-care is the only way to recharge and maintain the healthy levels required for innovating in our administrative careers and managing our capacity to do the things we need and want to do each day. If this is an area you struggle with, take my self-care challenge. It’s a fantastic way to refresh your body, mind, and soul.
Supporting your administrative success,
Julie
