Blog / Categories / Methods

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 ...

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 ...

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.

One of my main sources of inspiration is to read blogs. From my blogroll in Google Reader, I get ideas for new tips on structure, new ways to package my services physically, for innovative ways to market my business.

One of the most well-written and well-run blogs I follow are ...

About a week ago, I had the pleasure of giving a talk on structure and personal productivity for West Swedish Sports Confederation here in Gothenburg. We were at Ullevi Conference and the participants came from the sports confederation and from the municipalities of the City of Göteborg.

In conversations after my talk, it became clear to me that ...

To be a ”struktör” is very much about visualizing; to clarify what at first sight might be experienced as messy. By structuring and visualizing you make it all apprehensible and tangible. Then it will be easy to see what is big and what is small (it can be problems, opportunities or something else), what’s important and what is not so important, what the next natural step will be et c.

This type of work is a lot easier if you have well adapted tools, tools which you are comfortable with and enjoy working with. The struktör’s eight tools are:

Are structure and creativity each other’s incompatible opposites? Does clarity and orderliness inhibit creativity? Is chaos a prerequisite for high quality creative expression?

Some people I meet express a fear that if they could improve their structure on the job, they would not be as creative as they are now. They seem to believe that order in itself stops the flow of ideas.

That’s not my experience at all. I would not say that ...

Have you ever experienced losing the receipts you got during a business trip that you had to account for, that the notes you took during the conference just disappeared, or perhaps the business cards you received at the mingle party apparently were nowhere to be found?

They have probably disappeared because ...

Most of us spend much of our days in meetings. At the risk of generalizing, I dare say that we all have experienced meetings that we wish we had not attended and that turned out not quite what we had expected. There may be meetings where do not come to any decision, meetings that get prolonged, meetings that start late, meetings that are completely chaotic, etc.

When you want to refine the way you do something, it is a good idea to ask the pros, those that apparently manage to develop their businesses from success to success, mostly by having meetings. A while ago, BusinessWeek published an interview with Marissa Mayer, Google’s Vice President of search products, where she ...

In a normal week at work, I have got a lot of different meetings with different people. It can be project-meetings, sales-meetings, lunch meetings or other kinds of meetings.

It is important for me that all of my meetings result in some form of progression, that they are tangible, and that all parties know the purpose of the meeting. It is not necessary that we make decisions in every meeting for things to progress; some meetings’ primary purpose is to get to know each other and our respective businesses, but ...

I have got an idea and I need your help.

In one of my current assignments, we need to…