To-do lists can be lifesavers when it comes to managing your work. But sometimes they’re nothing more than a list of things you never get to. Here are three tips for making them better:
Management & Leadership
If You Both Work, Stay Happy
Many relationships fail for work reasons: too much travel, too little time together, and too much relocation. It’s not easy, but it’s possible to manage a relationship and two careers.
Help Your Multitasking Colleague Break the Habit
Everyone these days is trying to get several things done at once. But it’s frustrating to work with someone who won’t stop glancing at his phone or even takes calls mid-meeting. If a co-worker’s inability to focus is bringing you down, try these three tactics:
Manage a Challenging (and Valuable) Employee
Genius often comes with downsides. If you have a valuable (but disruptive) employee on your team, try these management tactics:
Hurricane Sandy Shows It’s Time to Embrace Workplace Flexibility
Could businesses have handled the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy better if they’d been leveraging flexible work practices long before the storm hit?
When Working Hard, Make Time for Rest
When you’re on a deadline or have a particularly thorny project in front of you, it can be tempting to try to power through for long periods of time. But your brain’s ability to focus only lasts about 90 minutes before you need to take a break.
Prepare to Answer Customers’ Toughest Questions
No salesperson likes to take a hard question from a skeptical prospective customer. But since providing good answers is often the difference between winning and losing their business, it pays to get it right:
Make the Most of a Bad Job
If you’re unhappy at work, you don’t have to live with it. And you don’t have to quit. Here’s how to make the most of an imperfect job situation.
Get to Know Your Unknown Audience
People don’t fall asleep during conversations, but they often do during presentations — because many presentations don’t feel like discussions.
Toss the Old Rules for Selling
The recession challenged many long-held rules about how to boost sales. Instead of slashing prices and cutting customer support teams, try these counterintuitive tactics:
Reward Yourself for Doing the Tasks You Hate
Crossing something off your to-do list can be satisfying. But you may need extra motivation to get through the more dreaded tasks. Here’s how to motivate yourself to accomplish those difficult projects:
Try Crowdsourcing Your Performance Reviews
Employees, managers, and HR professionals have long questioned the accuracy and effectiveness of annual performance reviews. But is there a viable alternative to the often inflexible and infrequent formal process?
