1.  Take control of your email –  “OHIO” Only handle it once
Never ever put off an email to be handled later.  It will take you three times as long to deal with it.  You will have to find it and reread it, then think about what you wanted to do with it the first time you read it.  React to it or delete it.

1.  Take control of your email –  “OHIO” Only handle it once Never ever put off an email to be handled later.  It will take you three times as long to deal with it.  You will have to find it and reread it, then think about what you wanted to do with it the first time you read it.  React to it or delete it.

2.  Get rid of your to-do lists To do lists never get cleared and they mostly make you feel guilty until at some point you scrap it and start another anxiety guilt producing list.  Your calendar is already a form of a to-do list.  If it is that important put it on your calendar which gives you a deadline.

3.  Set a limit on how much time you spend on social media. Social media is a wonderful thing, but can be a great time waster which means a huge productivity killer.  Social media has two legitimate purposes, recreation and work.  Either one can easily result in bloat.  Figure out what is optimal for you.

4.  Kill two birds with one stone We tend to live our lives serially, meaning we accomplish one task, then the next one.  No doubt there is much value in doing things this way, it keeps us sane and on task, but we also need to step back and ask if there are things we can do that will serve multiple purposes. Can you combine a new employee orientation with on-going staff training?  Will you save time, energy and maybe even money by consolidating vendors?  When you are doing rounds, how else can you use that time to improve your community?

5.  Get tough with self-imposed deadlines Self-imposed deadlines are perhaps one of the hardest things for most of us to do.  We get wrapped up in a project that has real value and after spending hours or even days on it come to the startling revelation that it is not worth the time and effort involved.  I am probably more guilty with email than anyplace in my life.  I have thousands of emails in my personal inbox, that I hope to read someday, which of course will never happen.  I need to get rid of several thousand of them. The one place where a self-imposed deadline has been very effective in my life is here at Senior Housing Forum.  When I started, I committed to myself that I would post at least one article per week and I have never missed that deadline.   Today I am committed to two articles a week and at least 4 new article links for the left column every day.  I have never missed that deadline either.   I know that if I slip once, it will become easy to slip again.

6.  Make a point of giving back to someone in your professional life every day (without an expectation of a returned favor). The giving can take so many forms here are just a few: –  Say thanks to someone –  Acknowledge a job well done –  Tweet a story you liked or got something out of –  Introduce people you think might have common interests You will benefit in two ways.  In the long term the favors will come back and sometimes from unexpected places.  You will every day just plain feel better for having done this.

7.  Tilt at windmills Always have some big crazy wild project you are working on.  Something that is creative and all but impossible . . . .  Something that will stretch you and your team.  Big dreams motivate people to do amazing things.

8.  Take a walk everyday A ten or fifteen minute walk where you leave behind your cellphone and other electronic devices will provide you with perspective you will not be able to get any other way.  You will have better “big picture vision”.  It will help you to not sweat the small stuff. This article was inspired by a piece at Fast Company titled: 11 Productivity Hacks From Super-Productive People. What would you add to this list? If you like this story it would be a great honor to me if you would subscribe to our email list.

Don’t miss a single issue of Senior Housing Forum, subscribe today. It is free! We do not sell or share your contact information. The posts are practical and never too long. Go to the main page of Senior Housing Forum and on the top you will see a link to our subscription sign-up page. You will receive notification when a new article is posted. You can unsubscribe at any time. Finally: If you know anyone who is looking at emergency call systems I would appreciate the opportunity to talk with them about Vigil Health Solutions.