10 05 06 07 08 09 Take 10 or 20 Take a 10-minute break every hour. Get up if you have been sitting, or sit if you have been standing. Stretch or change body position to increase blood flow to your muscles. Laptop users: take more breaks! To rest your eyes, think 20-20-20: look at something 20 ft. away for 20 seconds, every 20 minutes. Five Steps to a Healthy and Comfy Office, April/May 2012 Take the long view Start with the big picture (What’s your vision 10 years out?), and then work backwards to develop five-, three- and one-year plans. But focus on specific goals for the com- ing year, broken down into monthly or weekly tasks. Get Goal Oriented, April/May 2013 Be specific Let teammates know exactly what you want, including deliverables, timelines and other guidelines. Avoid having to problem solve later on by conducting a super-thorough and well-defined handoff. Also be clear about how their contributions are important to the overall assign- ment. “Delegating is not splitting up workloads,” says Frank Auddino, a business consultant in Ajax, Ont. “It’s sharing components of the activities required on a project to achieve that bigger, unified vision.” Perfecting the Art of Delegating, Feb./March 2014 Consider your comments Be a manager who is already giving positive feedback as well so you’ve developed a path of communica- tion with your employees. “And think about the frequency of feed- back,” says John Wright, president of the Toronto-based Canadian Management Centre. “If you’re a person who doesn’t give feedback often, then it’s more problematic because you’re now trying to set up a conversation with somebody in a way that you don’t normally do it.” How to Give Negative Feedback in a Positive Way, June/July 2015 Process email two or three times a day Establish a few times a day when you’ll handle email and stick to it. Go in with an eye toward deleting or archiving as much as possible, immediately tackling the replies that will take under two minutes and moving the rest into action folders called something like “to-do,” “delegate” or “read”—for those newsletters with articles you want to read but not right now. How to Achieve Inbox Zero, April/May 2016 04 Be brave What if you’re intimidated by a roomful of peo- ple? “Take a few seconds to compose yourself when you enter,” suggests Julie Blais Comeau, CEO at etiquettejulie.com. Start a conversation when you check in your coat, for instance, then approach a small group of perhaps three people with a quick “May I join you?” One woman, who characterizes herself as essentially shy, chal- lenges herself by speaking to a certain number of people at each event—this way it becomes a game and calms her nerves. Strategies for Networking Success, Sept./Oct. 2017 Schedule everything Put everything in your planner, even personal to-dos. “If you don’t make the commitment of blocking time to do something, it’s just an intention,” says Margaret Miller, CEO of Teragram Coaching & Consulting Group in Hamilton. “Once you put it in writing, it becomes a commitment.” And be realistic—give yourself 25 to 50 per cent more time than anticipated. Better Time Management, Sept./Oct. 2011 MOTIVATE
