It’s March again, and with it comes “March Madness,” a time of the year where seemingly everyone around is infected with a fever for college basketball. Even for those who have absolutely no interest in the tournament, it is hard to escape hearing about it. Even President Obama got in on the action, taking a break from his busy schedule of running country to pick UNC as his champion.

Along with all of this media coverage, come all of the reports of how much March Madness will cost the economy in terms of lost productivity. Distracted by office pools, tournament brackets, and the fact that all of the games will be streamed for free over the internet this year, workers everywhere are called by the siren song of the NCAA tournament. Previous studies have estimated that the tournament will cost anywhere from $1 to $4 billion in lost productivity.

So, is this something that businesses should worry about though? Not really. read more

Meetings consume too much of our lives. And, as we’ve discussed before, when you measure the outcome of a meeting with action steps, you realize that many meetings yield…nothing.

The ultimate irony is that the infamous “ team meetings” are most often held in the morning when we are most productive. When a meeting commences, everyone’s process grinds to a halt. Some people claim to get most of their work done every day before noon. While meetings are helpful in getting us on track, the COST of meeting is frequently underestimated. Whenever possible, we should cancel meetings when the agenda is lacking.

But alas, meetings are still necessary. People need to connect and discuss certain issues. One best practice we have observed in the field is calling “standing meetings” – meetings in which people gather and remain standing. The tendency to sit back and reiterate points - commentate rather than content-make -  dwindles as people get weak in the knees. Standing meetings become more actionable. read more

I think we can all agree: There are too many ideas in the world, and not enough action. As we usher in a new year during difficult economic times, we must question the way we manage our projects and our time. We must be willing to question conventional wisdom when it comes to the burdensome, bureaucratic stuff that we do “just because.” As leaders of small businesses and growing teams, we must challenge ourselves to boost not only our productivity but the general productivity of our teams.

As a team focused on helping people and companies boost productivity to make ideas happen, we obviously have a lot to say on this topic!

For starters, our years of research have caused us to question the status quo of everyday productivity and project management. We question the traditional approach to projects. We believe that too much time is wasted on “filing stuff” and organizing, and too little time is spent on actually taking action. And we have discovered that the emotional and social aspects of managing projects (like the power of nagging, transparency, and design) are critical to a productive work environment.

So, consider the following five “tips for more productivity” and how they might help you and your team…

1. Actions should be kept separate from email.
Email can kill productivity, because the actions you must take are buried in regular communication. An inbox full of email - even well-filed emails - still forces you to dig through every communication to find the hidden task. Tasks to be completed, or “Action Steps,” should be kept separate. Consider labeling all emails with “Action Required” and then simply listing the action steps - each one starting with a verb. And AVOID the “summary” section of a meeting in these emails. Truth is, very few people read it. read more

It is extremely difficult to develop new ideas amidst the burdens of the every day. Phones ringing. Deadlines looming. Email boxes overflowing. For many of us, a successful day is simply completing as many action steps as we can to move the ball forward on our projects.

Progress in any project ultimately starts with taking action. So, action-packed days are our best hope for pushing our ideas to fruition. However, it can also be argued that revolutionary achievements start with great insights - insights that require time, deep thought, and a certain degree of peace.

If Thomas Edison was right when he said that genius is “1% inspiration and 99% perspiration,” then we should question how we spend our time. When do you jump fully into “action mode,” and when do you take time to dream up new ideas?

As I have shared before in other posts, some especially productive innovators interviewed by Behance claim that they use every weekday for execution and preserve their weekends for inspiration and “unfocused thinking.” This is not to suggest that weekdays should be void of creativity, but rather that we should focus on completing action steps and getting stuff done during the week and then contemplating the bigger picture on the weekends… read more

If idea generation is an addiction then killing ideas is the cure. After spending countless hours developing and polishing ideas, we tend to become attached to those same ideas (whether they are good or bad). The result can be a great deal of wasted energy and effort. It’s time to sever ties with (some of) our ideas and send them to the graveyard!

Most ideas are like bad relationships: you know you have to move on but the idea of letting go seems too unbearable to handle. Our team has heard all the excuses that range from “It’s just a matter of time before this idea succeeds” to “This idea is just too perfect to give up.” But, in reality, the same rule that holds true for relationships should apply for ideas: if it’s going nowhere, it is sometimes best to move on. read more

The Behance Team recently interviewed Ian McCallam, founder and creator of the website This Ain’t No Disco. Whenever we interview especially productive creative people, we always ask for their tips on how to organize, stay productive, and lead others in the pursuit of making ideas happen. Ian has some particularly helpful insights and observations to share on successful creative environments that combine inspiration and execution:

40 second meetings.
“An agency I did some work with had a great system of 40 second meetings. Only those who needed to be present were present. It was their job to ‘gather the facts’ before the meeting. Each person had 40 seconds to get across their point and updates. Members of the meeting had truly learned how to cut to the chase and make their point the most important. This skill followed through into their day-to-day work. They now have a stronger ability to identify the true action points from the clutter. Timelines for jobs have since been dramatically decreased.” read more

Earlier today I wrote a post about a new policy we’re implementing at my business. I thought readers here might enjoy the post, so here it is in its entirety:

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In the past few years, the weekend has taken on a new meaning for me. In short, it’s now defined by work. The weekend is when I catch up on work I can’t get done during the week, in particular work that requires long form thinking, the kind of thinking that powers drafting considered memos and strategy documents, even posting to this or other blogs. read more

Many companies place ‘creative stimuli’ like pool tables in their offices to inspire remarkable ideas, but what actually materializes as a result? Whether your office is made up of cubicles or open-plan architecture, your workspace should foster a culture of Productive Creativity.

You can learn a lot about a person from taking a look around their home. Since everything communicates, a brief glimpse at a bookcase is a lens for what your colleague finds interesting. Much like you can tell a lot about a person by looking around their home, you can understand a company’s culture from their workspace. read more