Have you ever wondered why some people are more productive than others? What’s the magic formula?
I have had the privilege of working with and coaching some outstandingly successful men and women who are out there changing the world in a profound way. Each one of them is extremely busy, but they’re never too busy to do what needs to get done, because they’ve built good habits and practices that they follow every day.
Their good habits for super-productivity include being disciplined about the things they refuse to do.Here are nine of the most important that you can start implementing today:
You can’t live without innovation. It’s why you’re in business. But as you grow, innovation also becomes a threat. It threatens to disrupt your existing business model, products, and services. It threatens to upset your customers, who have become accustomed to a certain way of doing things. It threatens your partners and employees, who have developed expertise in the way things currently work. That’s the real reason innovation is so hard. While we espouse its values, we also build defenses against it.
I call these the innovation killers. The innovation killers are almost always neatly disguised as protectors of the organization. Few people use these behaviors to try to kill innovation outright. Their intentions are always good ones: to minimize risk, to deliver predictability and operational excellence, and to satisfy market, customer, and analysts’ expectations. The innovation killers are staffed with armies of well-intentioned corporate citizens, ready to defend their turf and keep innovation at bay, lest it disrupt the certainty of the status quo.
“The innovation killers are almost always neatly disguised as protectors of the organization.”
Guess what? If you’re looking for certainty, you’ve picked the wrong century. Get used to it, and get familiar with this list of seven innovation killers. These are the weeds that threaten to choke your garden; when you see them, pull them out by their roots.
English: Diagram showing overview of cloud computing including Google, Salesforce, Amazon, Axios Systems, Microsoft, Yahoo & Zoho (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Last September, as part of our global Windows Azure for Research program, we announced our cloud training classes that we designed to show academics how Windows Azure can accelerate their research. Now that we’re almost a month into the new year, we would like to let you know what we have planned for 2014—including some new resources that you can use and share with your colleagues and contacts.
skills-16 (Photo credit: Vancouver Island University)
Do you have the skills that would make employers want you? This infographic (from Youtern) shows what the employers want, and what the candidates need to get.
Takeaways:
Strategic perspective is the most valued skill by an employer.
Many hiring managers believe skills can be learned.
70% of hiring staff rate interview skills as necessary for success.
Using social media in your job hunt doesn’t just mean having a LinkedIn profile and tweeting industry news anymore. Many employers are looking for candidates with an impressive online presence, also known as a social resume.
Check out this infographic for what you need to know about creating a social resume that’ll stand out to hiring managers, plus some insider tips for how to tell if it’s getting you the results you want.
David Allen, the creator of the Getting Things Done (GTD) productivity method, explains in this short video how you can get control over your to-do list by clarifying your actions and the results you want. If you’re not keeping a to-do list because it’s never helped you, his tips may help you start one that works for you.
English: Some of the basic elements of the scientific method, arranged in a cycle to emphasize that it is an iterative process. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
You know how to tell if something controversial is actually true, but what if you want to read up on something without stumbling into half-truths and pseudoscience? Here’s how to use the internet as a powerful research tool without being led astray.
Image via WikipediaIf you’re looking for a free and easy web conferencing system that allows speech, video, chat and screen sharing and that come from a company with a proven track record – you could do a lot worse than Adobe ConnectNow.Adobe Conn…
Adobe ConnectNow is a great way to share ideas, discuss details, and complete work together — all online. Reduce travel costs, save time, and increase productivity with a web conferencing solution that’s easy to access and simple to use. It’s free, so sign up now.
Image via CrunchBaseInteresting post over at ZDNet regarding Twitter in education.More than the content of the post I think it’s useful in reminding practitioners (and IT managers) that technology is not, in and of itself, good or bad, it’s how we…
Interesting post over at ZDNet regarding Twitter in education.
More than the content of the post I think it’s useful in reminding practitioners (and IT managers) that technology is not, in and of itself, good or bad, it’s how we use it.
If Twitter can be used to take a quick poll of students without installing any fancy software – why not?
Look, Ma! Twitter’s useful! | Education IT | ZDNet.com
Image via WikipediaOK Let’s get the sniggers out of the way first. Yes, I know that Microsoft setting up a site asking are you certifiable will be the start of many jokes but it’s actually a useful site.Designed to help consider whether Microsoft …
OK Let’s get the sniggers out of the way first. Yes, I know that Microsoft setting up a site asking are you certifiable will be the start of many jokes but it’s actually a useful site.
Designed to help consider whether Microsoft certification is the right way to go it takes the form of a trivia game with technical (and some not so technical questions). Top spots get onto the leaderboard and, far more importantly, bragging rights.
Learn more at the Microsoft Education blog:
The UK Further Education Blog : Do you know your GPO from your AD?
Have you ever wondered why some people are more productive than others? What’s the magic formula?
