Welcome to The Structure Blog!

You know how it is. You’ve got a task you really need to get done right now, but you keep getting distracted by other things.??

Maybe you have writer’s block or think the task is so boring that you find it hard to work focused with it. You check your e-mail, flip though Facebook, call someone just for fun, you go and get another cup of coffee and happen to hang around the coffee machine for a while and small talk, read an online newspaper, Google something you’ve come to think about, and so on.??
You do anything except what you actually know is the right thing to do right now.??

Now you are going to learn ...

Every now and then, I am invited to speak about structure and productivity at breakfast- or lunch-seminars hosted by business networks, business associations etc.

A short while ago, it was at a Rotary Club in Kungälv, Sweden, and again I was astonished by with what warmth the Rotarians receive their guests (me included). As tradition dictates, I had the privilege to sit at the president’s table and we began to talk about ...

Do you feel that you’re constantly lagging a little behind with what you’ve got to do, that you always complete what you’re working with at the last moment, that deadline is always a bit too close??? From time to time I experience this myself and ...

If you are in the habit of using a to-do list, it probably mostly consists of tasks you’ve realized you have to do and therefore wrote on the list. They are tasks you will carry out soon after that and then cross off or delete.?? But you have to keep even less information in your head if you let the to-do-list generate new tasks on its own.?? We all have tasks we perform on a regular basis. It may be tasks that you ...

OK, let us say that we succeed in clearing our desk as completely as if it were a desk in an IKEA showroom. It is free from piles of documents so that we easily can focus on the task at hand, without being distracted by stuff we do not need at the moment.

Then, it is a pity if what we see instead are ...

Many of us experience chaos from time to time in our everyday life when we are flooded by a constant stream of proposals, information and messages, more or less unchecked, through too many different channels. It’s as if we are exposed to a bunch of pipelines which deliver contributions to our everyday planning.

??If we’re not to drown in piles of paper, ...

I just hung up after a follow up over the phone with a customer of mine that is halfway through my program “Individual sessions in personal productivity”.

He has learned to ...

The fact that papers and documents which are trash should be thrown away and that good-to-have-material should be saved may sound obvious.

??However, ...

Do you remember the early 90’s legendary series “Twin Peaks”? Each episode contained at least one scene in which Kyle MacLachlan’s character “Agent Cooper” grabbed his dictaphone and began by saying “Diane,…” and then freely recorded his thoughts onto the tape.

?The story never revealed who ...

I sometimes get the question whether it really improves the efficiency to be structured.

Doesn’t it create even more work if you write down everything you have to do (which you’re not going to do right away) and categorize every task in different ways? Doesn’t it just turn into a constant shuffling and moving of papers from one folder to another, which in turn are to be browsed and emptied at different dates?

Since ...

Right now, today, I’m writing about how to say no and still have a clear conscience.

When I give talks or work with individuals within organizations, I often meet people that would like to be able to “say no to more things”.

To me, it is all about ...

For most people there are times when we during a longer stretch of time have had a heavier workload than we are comfortable with.

If you are the manager or leader of a company, an organization or some kind of group, it might be that you don’t have the time to perform all the tasks which are dependent upon you in particular to perform them (you having the position that you do).

If you have coworkers, ...

A while ago, I held one of the instances of my recurring open course in personal productivity in Malmö in the Southernmost part of Sweden. One of the participants was Danish expert on self-led work Sanina Kürstein from Sensio.

She had found a ...

Some of us are fond of electronic gadgets, such as an iPhone or a smartphone with calendar- and task-functions which can be synchronized with the desktop computer or the mail server.

There are many advantages with digital systems. One can easily sort and filter out the to-do lists, you’ve got better opportunities for back-ups, etc.

But there are also ...

Have you, just like me, from time to time attempted to establish a new habit, and have had some trouble with succeeding? Maybe you attempted trying a new approach to improve your personal structure.

You have used the new approach for a while, but run out of steam and direction and started to run in the same old tracks again. Sometimes ...

There are some things we’ve got to do which, like the constant buzzing of a summer fly, annoys us so immensely that it makes us spend too much time and energy on grieving over and dwelling on it, or maybe even walk around really irritated due to it.

We lose perspective, and not only do those annoying things feel numerous, ...

Have you ever thought about how much a prolonged meeting really costs extra?

Now you can easily look it up, even during the meeting.

I do not want these structural tips to be about specific software, but about smart working methods and attitudes regardless of which software you like to work with.

But, today I would like to make an exception and ...

I just came back from a meeting with a prospective customer.

In our conversation we came to talk about the phenomenon that those who want to prevent and counteract change in an organization can do so by being totally passive, especially if he or she holds a key position.

That way, you could say that ...

Do you all too often experience that you are bothered or disturbed by your colleagues? Do you feel that you can’t go through the hallway without getting called in to someone’s office when you have the least time for it? Do you repeatedly get interrupted just when you are at a critical stage in the task you really need to focus on?

Sure, occasionally you want to tell them off for interfering, but at the same time you are after all working together to bring the business forward.

And it is hardly that ...