Carson Tate's Blog, page 4

The Office Depression Epidemic: What You Can Do As An Employer

Burned out? 

You’re not alone.

89% of full-time U.S. employees have experienced burnout over the past year, according to a survey by Viser.

In 2019 the World Health Organization officially recognized burnout as an occupational phenomenon and described it as “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”

Unsustainable workloads, a perceived lack of control, and a lack of community are all factors that can contribute to burnout, according to a University of California Berkeley study.

Burnout has a significant cost to both individuals and organizations. Between lost productivity, employee disengagement, absenteeism, lower organizational commitment, and turnover, burnout costs organizations as much as $190 billion annually.

Here’s what you can do to identify and address burnout on your team:

Watch for signs of burnout

According to Magellan Healthcare, these are four markers of burnout: 

Do your employees say they feel continually drained?Do your team members say they have frequent headaches or muscle pain?Have you observed an employee withdrawing from team activities, meetings, and interactions — both virtual and in-person?Have you observed a team member losing motivation to succeed or displaying increased negativity or irritation?

If you notice one or more of these signs in a team member, have a conversation and identify the specific cause or causes of their burnout so you can work together to address it.

Explore Your Team Members’ Desired Autonomy Needs

Being micromanaged and having a lack of control in the workplace contribute to burnout. Explore your team members’ desired autonomy needs by asking each employee the questions below:

How much autonomy do you currently have over your tasks at work — the primary responsibilities of your job and what you do in a day?  What, if any, changes would enable you to have more choice and control over your tasks? What ideas do you have to increase your task autonomy? How much autonomy do you currently have over your time at work — for example, when you log in, when you log off for the day, and how you allocate your time each day? What, if any, changes would enable you to have more choice and control over your time? What ideas do you have to increase your time autonomy? How much autonomy do you have over the people you work with each day? What, if any, changes would enable you to have more choice and control over who you work with each day? What ideas do you have to make that happen?  How much autonomy do you currently have over how you complete your tasks each day? What, if any, changes would enable you to have more choice and control over your execution? What ideas do you have to increase your execution autonomy? 

When you support your team members’ autonomy, your team members are more productive, have greater job satisfaction, less burnout, and higher levels of psychological well-being.* 

* Paul P. Baard, Edward L. Deci, and Richard M. Ryan, “Intrinsic Need Satisfaction: A Motivational Basis of Performance and Well-Being in Two Work Settings,” Journal of Applied Social Psychology 34 (2004).

Reduce Time and Energy Drains

Unnecessary meetings, inefficient collaboration processes, and never-ending workdays all contribute to your team members’ burnout.

Conduct a meeting audit and eliminate unnecessary meetings that deplete your team’s time and energy. Gather the team and assess the value of each team meeting on the calendar. Answer the questions below for each meeting:Does the original purpose for the meeting still exist? How does the meeting help the team achieve its goals?How does the purpose of the meeting align with the team’s strategic priorities? And/or the company’s strategic priorities?Does the meeting energize the team? Or does it suck the life right out of them?Is the meeting a rehash of prior meetings?

What will the team not be able to accomplish, create, or build if they are in this meeting?

2. Co-create work execution norms with your team members that enable everyone’s performance and engagement. Gather your team and discuss the questions below:

What is the best way for us to communicate project updates, information, and urgent requests?What are our expectations regarding response time to IM, email, text messages, and phone calls?What are our team’s work hours? What days and times during the week do we want to schedule team meetings and team social events? Are there any days and times that we want to be meeting-free?What is the optimal team schedule to support in-office and remote work? What will be our process for modifying and adjusting this schedule as individual and project needs change?How do we want to track and manage team projects?How do we want to manage information management?How do we want to support each other’s social and emotional well-being and needs?

52% of employees reported that “being asked to take on more work” is the number one burnout contributor in the Viser survey. Ensure that your team’s meetings, collaboration, communication, and execution norms reduce workloads and alleviate exhaustion. 

Burnout is pervasive and costly. Watch for signs of burnout on your team and work to address them immediately. Support your team members’ autonomy needs and actively eliminate unnecessary meetings, inefficient collaboration processes, and never-ending workdays.

Download my free guide, Top 2022 Workplace Trends and Strategies to Decrease Burnout, Increase Engagement, and Retain Top Talent, to further assist you in addressing burnout here.

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What is an “Abilities Opportunity Map”​ and How Can You Use it to Create Your Dream Job?

Your resume and cover letter gleam from the final revision you made last night. Your LinkedIn profile is up to date and the Excel spreadsheet of potential companies, keyword search terms, recruiters, and people to contact in your network is complete. Let the job search begin!

Not so fast. 

If you want a career and to be fulfilled and engaged at work, don’t overlook these four essential things in your job search.

Because now is the time to G.R.O.W. your career.

G – Get Clear 

If you are not clear on the experiences and capabilities you possess, it is difficult to imagine how you can use them to guide your job search to advance in your profession. To have the vocation of your dreams, you need to be clear. Clarity drives your success.

Let’s do a Career + Life Walk. This is a powerful process that enables you to methodically assess each professional role and position throughout your career history, as well as your volunteer service. It is important to include your volunteer service because there may be experiences and aptitudes you gained through volunteering that can be valuable to you now.

Open your freshly updated resume and for your most recent role answer the following questions:

What was your specific job?What were you responsible for?What did you do?

Focus on the actions you performed as part of your responsibilities. These are the physical, tangible steps you performed. Here’s a hint: all actions start with an action verb. For example, develop, analyze, or coach. Remove any abstractions, assumptions, or MBA school jargon. The goal is clarity.

Now, review your response to question number three, what did you do, and identify the following:

Themes or clusters of actions that you want to ensure you use in your new job.Actions that intellectually stimulated, challenged, fulfilled, and motivated you. 

Repeat this process for all your employment and volunteer roles. You will come back to this information in the final step in the G.R.O.W. process-  Where and What else?

R – Recognize Your Results

To leverage your existing skills, experiences, and talents to build your vocation, it is imperative that you know and can articulate the advantage and impact of each of these in your hiring interviews. Results are the value you provide to your new company and the currency you will use to apply for a position that may be considered a “stretch” for you.

Go back to your resume and answer the following questions for your current position:

1. What were my quantitative outcomes? So what?

Quantitative results can be counted, measured, and expressed with numbers. Identify each quantitative outcome, and then ask yourself the “so what?” question. Numbers without context allow other people to tell your story. You need to tell your own story and clearly communicate the value of the outcome you achieved.

For example, you increased supplier diversity by 35%. So what? This promoted innovation in your company through the introduction of new products, services, and solutions. It provided multiple channels to source goods and services, and it drove competition (on price and service levels) between your company’s existing and potential vendors.

2. What were my qualitative results?

Qualitative results are descriptive and conceptual. They can be categorized based on traits and characteristics.

For example, a member of your team enhanced their communication skills to be more succinct, precise, and factual in their presentations to your customers.

3. What was my overall impact in the role?

When I started in this position our revenue was ________, our customer service ratings were __________, the team’s engagement level was ___________, the team’s internal reputation was _____________ and the team’s contributions to the company were _________.

If some of the above items are not relevant to you and your position, replace them with what is applicable for you.

4. When you left this role, what was different in each of the above categories or the categories you added?

For each of your professional roles, answer these four questions to recognize your results. You will come back to this data in the next step.

 O – Own Your Impact

In each of your professional positions, you made an impact. Your customers, your team, the company, the community, or an individual was changed because of you and your work. To be fulfilled and engaged in your new job, it is important to identify the positive feelings associated with the results you identified in the prior step.

You may be tempted to skip this step because it appears too soft, woo-woo, or insignificant. I get it. However, there are positive feelings associated with each of your results. Positive feelings are one of the five elements that help people reach a life of fulfillment and meaning according to Martin Seligman*, one of the founders of positive psychology. So, what did you feel when you identified your results? Joy? Hope? Enthusiasm? Pride? Satisfaction? 

*(M. Seligman, Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-Being (New York: Free-Press, 2011).

You are on a journey to find a new job and more happiness and fulfillment at work. Don’t you want to feel those feelings again? Or more of them? 

Where and What Else?

Your final step is to identify where else you can use the actions you identified in the first step, Get Clear, that intellectually stimulated, challenged, and motivated you, and that generated positive emotions from the results you achieved.

Brainstorm how your actions and results demonstrate that you can apply for, and get, a position beyond the linear journey your resume may indicate. Think about the following:

What do you want to do more of in a new position? How do your results demonstrate that you can expand the scope of your responsibilities and take on an expanded role?What else can these actions be used for?

Often my coaching clients get stuck and think that they can only use their expertise in one way. This one-track thinking limits your possibilities. The goal is to expand your opportunities and use your talents to advance your career. If you need help, ask a colleague, friend, or mentor to help you brainstorm.

You are the architect of your career. Be intentional as you conduct your job search. The goal is not just a new job, it is a career and work that fulfills, engages, and enables you to reach your full potential. Own It. Love It. Make It Work. is the roadmap you need to create the job of your dreams and the life you crave. Purchase the book and workbook bundle to get started now. 

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Finding Your Gold: How to Identify Your Strengths to Find More Fulfillment in Your Job

How often have you heard from a speaker at a conference, on a podcast, or read on a blog, “play to your strengths” or “leverage your strengths?” “Strengths” is a persistent, perennial strategy to enhance engagement, fulfillment, and happiness at work. 

However, do you know you know your strengths?

To identify your strengths is an excavation process. When you excavate you remove rocks and soil to find precious minerals, like gold. To find your gold, or your strengths, you will have to look below the surface of your day-to-day tasks. You will need to strip away generic descriptions to uncover the essence of your strengths. 

The three processes that I use in my executive coaching practice to help my clients excavate their strengths are: reflection journaling, performance reviews/370 feedback reports, and calendar and task list analysis.

Process #1: Reflection Journaling

Reflection journaling is a powerful tool for learning, growth, and change. It can help you identify important insights or key themes from experiences and events in your life. 

Here’s how to use reflection journaling to excavate your strengths.

Reflect on the following questions and record your answers to the questions below for one week.

Think about your best day at work ever. What were you doing? (Hint: think about specific activities.)When people praise you at work, what do they applaud?What is the best compliment you’ve ever received at work? What made it the best?I feel strong when . . .I loved it today when I . . .I can’t but help to . . .How would you describe your strengths?

At the end of the week, review your notes for any themes and patterns that emerged and use them to identify your strengths.

Process #2: Performance Reviews/360 Feedback Reports

Performance reviews and 360 feedback reports provide data on instances when others observed consistent, near perfect performance from you, which is indicative of your strengths. However, it is important to remember that this is how others perceive your strengths, so you will still need to think about their feedback and then draft your own list of your strengths.

Follow the steps below to identify your strengths based on others’ feedback.

Step 1: Collect as many of your prior performance reviews and/or 360 feedback reports as possible. I typically ask clients to collect at least four total, and one should be your most recent performance review or 360 feedback report.

Step 2: As you read through your reviews and/or reports, write down any statements that are made by at least four people. These statements indicate a pattern of consistent performance and illuminate a strength.

Step 3: Read through what you highlighted or wrote down and group the themes that emerged.

Step 4: Review the themes you grouped in the prior step and list what others observed as your strengths.

Step 5: Reflect on this list of strengths and modify or add any additional strengths that were not stated on your performance reviews or 360s.

Process #3: Calendar and Task List Analysis

The calendar and task list analysis is my favorite method for my clients to identify their strengths. Why? Because this shows you, in black and white, how you spend your time and energy each day. As you examine your calendar and task list, you will be able to identify your strengths. And, with this information, you will find opportunities to shift how you use your time so you can spend more time leveraging your strengths.

Complete your calendar and task list analysis by following the steps below.

Step 1. Review each meeting, appointment, and task you completed for the workday. Next to each meeting, appointment, and task, place either a smiley face, plus sign, check mark, or up arrow beside anything you did that made you feel powerful, confident, natural, smooth, on fire, authentic, awesome, and/or made you say “that was easy” or “when do I get to do this again?” This step will help you identify the activities you love doing.

Step 2. Now, go back to the meetings, appointments, and tasks that you did not put a mark next to. If that task made you feel drained, bored, frustrated, irritated, forced, or made you think “time is going so slowly,” or “how much longer?” put a frowny face, minus sign, or down arrow. Your goal is to identify the activities you loathe doing. 

There will be some meetings, appointments, and tasks that are neutral because you neither love nor hate them. Leave them unmarked.

Step 3. At the end of the week, create a list of all the meetings, appointments, and tasks you loved doing. Then, rank them in order of what made you feel the most alive, engaged, authentic, and powerful.

Step 4. Take your list of ranked activities and select the top three activities. Then, ask yourself the questions below from Marcus Buckingham for each:

Does it matter why I do this activity?Does it matter who I do this activity with/to/for?Does it matter when I am I doing this activity?Does it matter what this activity is about?*

(* Buckingham, Go Put Your Strengths to Work.)

When you ask yourself each of these four questions, you will discover exactly which aspects of this activity must be present for you to generate positive emotion. If you want to be engaged and fulfilled, you need to spend more time and energy on tasks that cause positive emotion. 

Your strengths are enablers of the life you want to lead. Strengths magnify your performance and potential. They can, and will, create opportunities for you to design your work in a way that meets both your professional and personal goals. When you use your strengths, you are more productive, impactful, and ultimately more fulfilled and engaged. Your strengths benefit your company and you. It is essential to know your strengths.

Own It. Love It. Make It Work. is the guide to help you identify and leverage your strengths. Purchase your copy here and leave me a review to let me know what you think.

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Are Your Employees Breaking Up With You?

More than 15 million US workers have quit their jobs since April 2021. 

Companies are responding with well-intentioned quick fixes – increasing pay or financial benefits or offering retention or “thank you” bonuses. However, employees are still leaving.

If your employees are breaking up with you, the first step to stopping it is to understand why.

In a recent McKinsey study, employers were asked why their team members had quit and they cited compensation, work-life balance, and poor physical and emotional health. These issues did matter to employees, just not as much as employers thought they did. In the study, the top three reasons employees cited for quitting were that they did not feel valued by their organizations (54%) or their managers (52%) or because they did not feel a sense of belonging at work (51%). Employees were more likely to prioritize relational factors, whereas employers were more likely to focus on transactional ones.

If the past 18 months of pandemic life have taught us anything, it is that employees crave investment in the human aspects of work. They want to know that their work matters. They want social and interpersonal connections with their manager and colleagues and to be valued by their managers and organizations. They want a fulfilling, engaging employee experience with autonomy and flexibility.

A “thank you” bonus reminds your employees that their real needs are not being met. This is not a gesture of appreciation; it is a transaction.

To retain your talent, it is imperative that you focus on the relational aspects of work—connection and fulfillment. 

Promote and support social wellbeing and connection.

Human beings are social animals with a fundamental need for connection. Social needs are treated the same way in the brain as the need for food and water*. This is why positive relationships and interactions are considered primal needs. We need each other for encouragement, development, and support.

* (M.D. Liberman and N.I. Eisenberger, “Pain and Pleasures of Social Life,” Science 323, no. 5916 (February 13, 2009):890-91.)

One in four Americans report experiencing loneliness during most of their day according to Gallup. Social isolation and chronic loneliness have a devastating effect on physical and mental health. Lisa Berkman, a Gallup senior scientist and Harvard Professor, and her colleagues studied the relationship between social and community ties and mortality rates across nine years. People who lacked community and social ties had mortality risks two times greater than people with many social contacts. 

Social time is vital for your team members’ mental and physical health. However, social needs and preferences vary. Some people thrive with constant connectivity, interaction, parties, events, in meeting new people, and participating in group discussions. Others prefer smaller groups, need periods of isolation to get work done, and thrive on one-on-one conversations. 

To determine the best way to support your team members’ social wellbeing, discuss the following questions with your team:

How can we celebrate each other’s personal and professional success in our work environment? What does this look like in person and remotely?How can we show our support for each other and support each other’s social and emotional wellbeing? What does this look like in person and remotely?How can we create regular opportunities for us to socialize as a team, both in person and virtually?How can we support each other’s need for personal time to socialize and connect with friends and family?

In-person, on-site work offers your team multiple formal and informal opportunities for interpersonal interaction and socialization. However, the challenge with hybrid work is that it requires you to be intentional in helping your team maximize relational return whether they are in the office or working remotely.

Create an environment that encourages connection. 

Plan social events at the office so your team can engage with each other. One of our clients, an investment management firm, has instituted a Friday office breakfast gathering. Breakfast is brought into the office, and everyone gathers in the breakroom to enjoy coffee, bagels, and catching up with each other.Improve connectivity and help employees expand their networks by offering coffee gift cards to team members who sign up for one-on-one virtual “coffee chats” with employees they don’t know.Send out themed “staycation” packages to employees. For example, a movie night with popcorn and a gift card; a game night with family-oriented games, chips, and salsa; or a virtual “spa day” with face masks, chocolate, and tea.

Reevaluate your team meetings. How can these provide opportunities for your team to connect, share, discuss work and topics unrelated to work and the office? Consider allocating time at each meeting for personal interaction or have meetings dedicated only to social or project related interactions.

Equip employees to clarify what they need to be fulfilled.

It takes two, employers and employees, to create a fulfilling, reciprocally constructive, and meaningful professional relationship. A team member’s engagement and satisfaction at work is a shared accountability between the employer and the employee. This is not possible if employees are unclear on what they need to be satisfied in their jobs. 

Ask your team members to identify what they need in each of the Five Essentials for Professional Fulfillment:  

Admit – What do you need to admit your need for acknowledgment and praise? How do you want to be recognized and appreciated in exchange for your contributions?Align – What are your strengths and unique skills? How can you align and leverage them to support the accomplishment of the company’s strategic goals? Develop – What skills and knowledge do you want to develop that will motivate and inspire you and help you advance in your career and within the organization?Cultivate – What relationships do you want to cultivate and develop with team members and leaders so you can advance your career and enjoy your work? What are your connection and social wellbeing needs? How can you get these met both professionally and personally?Design – How do you define meaning? What aspects of your work are significant and purposeful for you? What do you want more or less of in your job so that it is meaningful to you?

Once your employees have clarified what they need to be gratified at work, invite them to participate in a conversation about how to create a mutually beneficial way to work that supports both of you in achieving your goals, elevating the employee experience, and creating a culture where everyone can thrive.

The massive exodus of talent from companies is real. It will continue and it may get worse before it gets better. However, you have a powerful opportunity to re-recruit, re-engage, and re-energize your team members when you focus on the relational aspects of work.

We are human beings, not human doings. 

Equip and empower your employees to identify and own what they need to be fulfilled, happy, and productive. With practical, step-by-step guidance and instruction, Own It. Love It. Make It Work. is the roadmap your employees need to create the job of their dreams and the life they crave. Bulk discounts and workbooks are available, perfect for your team. Purchase the bundle to get started here.

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Busyness vs. Being Productive

Busyness vs. Being Productive

By Carson Tate on September 23, 2021

There’s a misconception among many professionals today that staying busy leads to improved productivity. However, upon close examination, having a busy day does not always translate into having a productive one. Some distinctive differences can impact work productivity. Most of us would like to relax more, focus better, and achieve our daily goals and, yet, we seem to be so busy that there are often tasks we can’t seem to get to.  

How to Prioritize and Reduce Busyness

Business and time management coach Carson Tate helps business professionals develop strategies for decreasing busyness while boosting productivity. The two, as it happens, do not go hand in hand. Busy people often try to cram more than they should into one day; the result is a mad scramble from one task to another without really giving any attention it deserves. By focusing on productivity, individuals can deliver better work while cutting their to-do list in half.  

Are you a busy or productive worker? In the following text, we’ll explore some key aspects of these traits so you can improve the quality of your work, prioritize, and enjoy a more satisfying workday.  

Less Is More

Busy workers attempt to fit much too much into a workday. However, cramming tasks into a single day spotlights a failure to prioritize and schedule work well. How much easier is it to focus on three critical tasks instead of ten important, semi-important, and not-all-that-important objectives?  

Some people feel more valued and more secure when they are loaded up with tasks. Sometimes feeling busy makes us feel needed. It’s important to feel needed and whether or not we do in our chosen company is another topic entirely from the one at hand, which is the need to be productive. By reducing the busyness that characterizes each day, we can spend more time focusing on fewer tasks. Not only does this method have the potential to nurture better work, but we’re also more likely to complete each task when we assign ourselves fewer of them.  

Minimize Distractions

Busy workers tend to be distracted more often than productive workers. People who feel perpetually busy at work usually are; they’re checking their emails every time they get a notification. They’re taking every phone call and getting caught up in conversations with their colleagues at the copier station. These seemingly small habits have a way of eating up a lot of time in a day, which could be better spent on more important priorities.  

Productive professionals develop a system for addressing their email correspondence and telephone calls. They don’t allow minor distractions to impede their workday progress. Yes, it takes some discipline, but the results are inevitably positive. When we reduce distractions, we get more done and feel less busy.  

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Urgent vs. Important

All work tasks could be said to be necessary, some less so than others. Indeed, not all tasks are urgent. Productive workers understand what constitutes an urgent task that must be accomplished instead of important tasks that can be scheduled the following day. Busy people often view more matters as urgent than there are. The heightened urgency can trigger a stress response that isn’t conducive to doing strong, focused work.  

When faced with several tasks, it’s helpful to rank them in their urgency and importance. Attend the urgent tasks first and schedule the others for the following day or later in the week. Give yourself the freedom to work smart rather than busy.  

Don’t Eat Lunch at Your Desk

Busy workers often feel so weighed down by work that they feel as if they don’t have time for lunch, so they eat at their desks while trying to get something done. Productive people schedule and stick to their breaks because they are essential and help boost our productivity.  

Getting away from your desk, walking around, eating lunch in a different environment can rejuvenate our minds and body. When we return to our desks, we feel refreshed and ready to move to our next task. A busy individual never gets that much-needed time to refresh their minds and take a break from the busyness. The result is that they continue to feel busy as well as tired.  

Focus, Don’t Multitask

We’ve been taught over the last few decades that our ability to multitask is an in-demand skill. It still comes up in interviews: “How well can you multitask?” Hopefully, HR will catch up soon and understand that multitasking keeps workers busy without ensuring their productivity. In business, it’s often more crucial to focus closely on one task instead of several to ensure that that task is completed well. 

Working on a budget proposal, for example, requires one’s focus, or it becomes easy to make errors. When working on a prioritized task, it’s important to close your office door, send your calls to voicemail, and focus closely on the task at hand. You’ll find that the quality of work will go up while you feel less busy.  

If you’re searching for productivity hacks and want to reduce busyness at the same time, keep these tips in mind. Business productivity coach Carson Tate can also help you develop strategies for increasing your workplace productivity. With her coaching, you can get the personalized career advice you need to work smarter. When you do, you’ll feel less daily stress because the busyness will decline, and you will be more satisfied with your workplace performance.  

Carson Tate is the founder and managing partner of Working Simply, Inc., a business consulting firm that partners with organizations, business leaders and employees to enhance workplace productivity, foster employee engagement, and build personal and professional legacies.

She is the author of Work Simply: Embracing the Power of Your Personal Productivity Style, and just released, Own It. Love It. Make It Work.: How To Make Any Job Your Dream Job. Order your copy HERE! For more information, please visit www.carsontate.com.

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How Time Management Coaching Can Improve Your Productivity

How Time Management Coaching Can Improve Your Productivity

By Carson Tate on September 17, 2021

It’s not unusual for business owners and other professionals to feel pulled in many different directions in a single day. The too-often heard complaint among many is “there just aren’t enough hours in the day.” What’s worse is that many of these individuals wind up taking work home and developing a pattern of working long days that stretch into the evening, leaving them little time for themselves and their families.  

Hard work is not usually a problem for business leaders, but successful time management often is. After working days of long hours that stretch into weeks and still feeling like there’s not enough time to do everything, people can become both overwhelmed and disheartened, which can lead to burnout. Effective time management isn’t always at the top of a business leader’s priority list, but it should be. Improved time management strategies such as working with a time management coach can help you streamline your tasks and manage your time in a manner aligned with your goals. When your time management is improved, you’ll notice productivity improvement too. 

Here, we’ll explore some vital time management skills to develop and explain how working with a time management coach increases your workplace productivity. 

What Is a Time Management Coach?

A time management coach specializes in instructing other professionals on how to improve their time management skills to achieve their goals and, in some cases, to achieve better work-life balance. A time management coach helps people learn how to work smarter so that they’re spinning their wheels less hard and still meeting their productivity goals. Often, this type of coach will help individuals simplify their priorities and streamline their tasks more effectively. The importance of time management is paramount to any business; that’s why working with a coach can help you develop new ways for getting work done without the necessity to take work home routinely. 

Lose the Angst and Overload

When you constantly feel overloaded with work, you’re apt to feel overwhelmed and anxious about it. These emotions won’t help you improve your productivity if you don’t have the right strategies to manage your workload effectively. Your time management coach can help you fix your priorities and cut down your to-do list to something you can manage each day. When faced with achievable daily goals, you’ll be less inclined to feel overwhelmed by your workload. 

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Busy Work vs. Results-Driven Work

Too often, busy work can swallow an entire day without leading to demonstrable results–results that reflect real productivity. Your business coach can help you learn how to differentiate between important productivity-driving tasks and tasks that keep you busy without providing a significant benefit. Sometimes busy work can be delegated; sometimes, it can be scheduled into a different part of the week. However, by eliminating that state of being perpetually busy, you can focus on your essential work with improved mindfulness. 

Scheduling

Many professionals live by their schedules, but that doesn’t mean they’re effectively scheduling their time. One of the time management tips your coach will share is planning three work priorities daily. Scheduling too many tasks into each hour of your workday is a surefire way to get backed up. After prioritizing your tasks, you can narrow them down to the most important ones and then schedule those into your time slots. Scheduling is something we all do, but not something we do well. With a few helpful tips and tweaks, you can revamp how you schedule your time for better outcomes in your professional and personal life.  

Stop Wasting Time

When you schedule your daily work priorities the day before or at the very start of each day, you can reduce procrastination. Just sticking to your reasonable schedule will help you avoid wasting time. Your time management coach will help you identify where you’re likely losing time in your day. Some of it may be in busywork. Some of it may be because you answer emails throughout the day instead of at a couple of set intervals. By evaluating how you spend all of your time, you can improve your time management skills and achieve greater productivity.  

Work-Life Balance

When you manage your time well at work, it will have less of a chance of impeding your time, the time you genuinely need to rejuvenate and enjoy your partner, family, or friends. Your business coach can help you develop goals relative to work-life balance and help you find strategies to achieve them. Work is important and often a central feature of our lives, but sometimes we forget that it’s meant to support our life–not to take it over. With the right time management strategies in place, you won’t have to sacrifice productivity to have a gratifying personal life. 

If you’ve been feeling run-down, stressed, and overworked, you can benefit from the help of a time management coach like Carson Tate. Carson can help you develop your time management skills and learn effective strategies that will make a demonstrable difference in your life and productivity. Carson offers time management instruction for business leaders based on her research in this field and business world insight drawn from both her experience and expertise. Stop spinning your wheels and getting nowhere. Carson will help you get your schedule on track to meet your productivity goals without constantly feeling the need for a nap.

Carson Tate is the founder and managing partner of Working Simply, Inc., a business consulting firm that partners with organizations, business leaders and employees to enhance workplace productivity, foster employee engagement, and build personal and professional legacies.

She is the author of Work Simply: Embracing the Power of Your Personal Productivity Style, and just released, Own It. Love It. Make It Work.: How To Make Any Job Your Dream Job. Order your copy HERE! For more information, please visit www.carsontate.com.

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How to Get and Stay Motivated at Work

How to Get and Stay Motivated at Work 

By Carson Tate on August 19, 2021

Perhaps some people maintain their A+ intrinsic enthusiasm for work every day. Their motivation is stellar, and they inspire their colleagues with their unfailing inclination to give the job their daily best. But then, these people are briefcase-carrying unicorns and probably don’t even touch junk food or caffeine.  

Many of us have to dig deep for that motivation, to spread it out so that it lasts the week. Self-motivation is a critical career skill regardless of your career. Here, we’ll discuss how to get motivated at work and maintain that motivation for a myriad of workplace benefits.  

Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Work Motivation

Intrinsic motivation refers to our inner drive. It’s based on our system of rewards. Extrinsic motivation refers to external rewards like maintaining motivation in the hopes of getting a raise or some reward that’s outside of us. For instance, if you are motivated to create fantastic front yard curb appeal because you enjoy working outdoors, love working with plants, and find that the physical activity feels good, you’re experiencing intrinsic motivation to improve your landscape. 

However, if you’re mowing, trimming, and mulching so that you don’t wind up with a nasty letter from your homeowner’s association, you’re experiencing extrinsic motivation. In the work world, extrinsic motivation is common. It’s also what ‘forces’ that motivation because few of us want to jeopardize our paycheck and benefits. An excellent salary is a powerful extrinsic motivating force, but as we’ve all experienced, pay doesn’t always answer our inner sense of reward. Consequently, to ramp up our intrinsic motivation, we may need to tap into our personal motivation psychology to figure out what drives us to stay motivated. 

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Tips to Stay Motivated at Work

Are you feeling unmotivated behind your desk lately? You’re not alone. According to a worldwide statistic published by TeamStage, only 15% of employees worldwide feel “engaged at work.” Considering that most people work at least an eight-hour day, do you want to be part of that 85% that is mentally disengaged at something you spend so much of your life doing? There is an alternative: get engaged. Use the following tips to re-engage with your work and fuel your inner drive for more inner fulfillment–and perhaps a little more joy. 

Create a Framework to Complete Work

Showing up to work without a clear plan or set schedule can lure you from the path of productivity, and when you feel unproductive, your sense of motivation takes a hit. If your first goal upon sitting at your desk is to enjoy your cup of coffee, you might be at risk of spending too much time on emails or, worse, social media.  

Instead, have a plan in mind for each part of each day. You might create this plan on your commute to work or at the end of the previous day. However, it’s important to start the day with your motivation revving. A schedule of tasks is a form of extrinsic motivation, but it can ignite your intrinsic motivation because of the feeling of accomplishment that task completion inevitably fosters.  

Create Achievable Goals–and Reward Yourself

Some days, it may feel next to impossible to gather the motivation needed to accomplish big goals. In such cases, we might be left feeling overwhelmed. Instead, break down big projects into small, achievable goals–and celebrate the completion of those goals. It’s easier to maintain your motivation when you know that when you complete this hour-long task, you’ll reward yourself with an herbal tea or lunch date with a friend.  

Beat Fatigue

Feeling physically exhausted can make us feel mentally worn out too, and vice versa. If you want to maintain your motivation at work, you’ll have to maintain your physical and mental energy levels. You can start with the obvious–getting your optimum amount of sleep. Avoid binging on Netflix until the weekend. Also, avoid things that drain your physical and emotional energy such as too much unhealthy food, and even toxic relationships. Being mindful about your energy levels will help you maintain them and, in turn, allow you to keep your motivation on track.  

Embrace Change

Work-life balance can begin to feel mundane and unmotivating when it remains unchanged. The nature of many jobs is a ‘relentless sameness.’ If you can’t change the nature of your job, make small arbitrary changes. For instance, change the music you play quietly in the background. Change your work routine by rearranging tasks from week to week. If you control your schedule, you can control the tasks within it.  

You can also bring new ideas to your job by reading or attending workshops. Make a point of thinking about how to positively change and inspire–even if it’s only for your own benefit. Others might take note and embrace your focus on the positive change too. 

Work is a necessity, but it doesn’t mean that we have to be bored and unmotivated to earn a paycheck. By actively finding ways to create and preserve our sense of self-motivation, we can more effectively maintain our productivity and achieve our extrinsic and intrinsic goals. You might also discover that by practicing ways to stay motivated at work, you’ll use the same techniques to maintain motivation for personal aspects of your life.

Carson Tate is the founder and managing partner of Working Simply, Inc., a business consulting firm that partners with organizations, business leaders and employees to enhance workplace productivity, foster employee engagement, and build personal and professional legacies.

She is the author of Work Simply: Embracing the Power of Your Personal Productivity Style, and just released, Own It. Love It. Make It Work.: How To Make Any Job Your Dream Job. Order your copy HERE! For more information, please visit www.carsontate.com.

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Remote Workers Quitting Rather Than Returning to the Office

Remote Workers Quitting Rather Than Returning to the Office

By Carson Tate on August 12, 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic transformed the way many businesses and organizations do work, but it seems that many of the changes may not be temporary. Employees had to do a mad scramble to learn how to master applications like Zoom to connect online and succeed working remotely. The fact is many workforce teams did work successfully from home. Work got done, and businesses adapted. Now, many business leaders want their employees to put the heels and suits back on, suffer the commute, and return to their cubicles. And many employees–who could blame them–don’t want to.  

Discussions of this now commonplace issue are occurring in boardrooms and C-suite offices all over the country. How do we solve this issue? For one thing, it’s a workers’ economy right now. Many companies, restaurants, and stores can’t maintain their hours or services because they can’t find people willing to work for them. Many employees are putting work on hold because of the continued COVID pandemic, while others are unwilling to work for the pay rate, benefits, or inflexible work conditions that many companies offer.  

Progressive businesses, however, who want to retain and attract talent are considering alternatives to mandatory return-to-work dates and exploring the benefits of maintaining a remote workforce. Suppose you’re considering creating or maintaining work from home jobs and managing a remote team. In that case, you may find it easier to navigate this tumultuous time and still operate a successful operation. 

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Why Won’t They Come Back?

First, not all employees can or want to work from home. Forbes published an article earlier this year and reported that a mere 3% of surveyed entrepreneurs and employees wanted to return full-time to a physical workplace office. Everyone else? They want to work from home or, at the very least, work part-time from home and part-time at the office.  

Employees know that work gets done. They’re productive and living up to their work responsibilities–albeit while wearing lounge pants. Cuddled up with the dog and the laptop on the couch is a powerful incentive for people after a year of braving a potentially lethal contagion and pondering their career decisions. Collectively, we’re all figuring out that we want to enjoy our lives while we still can.  

Working from home means fewer interruptions from colleagues we don’t especially want to see every day; a less stressful commute, fewer expenses for lunch, Starbucks, and gas; and the ability to work in our comfortable environments where we can drink our own coffee, and listen to Mozart, Fleetwood Mac, or Pantera in the background. What’s not to love? That kind of workplace culture–it’s impossible for any employer to beat! 

Benefits of Maintaining a Remote Workforce

To retain a workforce at full force, many companies are taking steps to prevent workers from wanting to quit their jobs. They’re developing hybrid work plans with some remote work and creating completely remote work jobs. Should your business develop a remote workforce team? Here are some advantages to consider: 

Geography Is No Obstacle

When you develop a remote team, you can hire talented applicants from anywhere (provided they have solid internet access). Geographical obstacles no longer limit you. Suddenly, your talent pool grows exponentially.  

Reduce Expense

Many companies, even Fortune 500s, are reducing overhead by closing some offices or reducing office space by allowing more employees the option to work from home. According to one stat published by Global Workplace Analytics, companies can save up to $11,000 per remote worker. Businesses can save on real estate costs, but they can also reduce their utility and equipment costs. 

Improved Productivity

Companies had a real fear that employees who worked from home would “slack off” and wouldn’t accomplish work. What they’re finding is that productivity is terrific–in most cases. It’s been a mindset adjustment for managers who have long made a practice of keeping tabs on their employees and looking over their shoulders to make sure they’re on task. They have to get over the fact that, yes, many remote workers will take an unscheduled break to toss in a load of laundry. Still, employees seem to remember that they owe work for their paycheck and benefits, and they don’t want to lose the luxury of earning a living from home, so they tend to work hard.  

Company Achieves a Competitive Edge

By developing a remote workforce, many companies find that they’ve got an edge over their competitors who continue to think inside the box–and the office cubicle. Employees want to work remotely and may be less inclined to quit a remote job (unless it’s to accept a different remote job, which is another story). Companies will find it easier to retain great employees and attract top-tier candidates in search of more flexible work options.  

Whether it’s to save money on the commute or achieve a better work-life balance, workers today want to work from home when possible. It’s an issue that’s still evolving. Still, businesses that want to manage a happy workforce and maintain their operation success should consider the benefits of remote work carefully before setting that mandatory “come back to the office or else” policy.

Carson Tate is the founder and managing partner of Working Simply, Inc., a business consulting firm that partners with organizations, business leaders and employees to enhance workplace productivity, foster employee engagement, and build personal and professional legacies.

She is the author of Work Simply: Embracing the Power of Your Personal Productivity Style, and just released, Own It. Love It. Make It Work.: How To Make Any Job Your Dream Job. Order your copy HERE! For more information, please visit www.carsontate.com.

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The Importance of Time Management When Working Remotely

The Importance of Time Management When Working Remotely

By Carson Tate on July 20, 2021

As the recent COVID-19 pandemic slowly subsides, allowing many people to return to their workplaces and offices, many plan to continue working remotely from home. Companies invested in tools and resources to enhance virtual work, and many plan to continue to employ a remote or hybrid workforce. If you’re someone who now works remotely and may do so permanently, you may need to evaluate how you manage your time to ensure that you stay productive and maintain a positive work-life balance. Here, we’ll explore some ways to keep your time management on track so you can make your remote-work experience a success. 

Home Office Time Management Strategies

Time management is an important concern for employees and employers no matter where work occurs–in the office or at the employee’s home. However, at home, employees are essentially on their own for a substantial part of the day unless they connect to their office via a virtual platform. That means that with no supervisor or executives looking over their shoulder, they have to exercise some self-discipline to manage their schedule to get their workload done effectively. The following are some time management tips that are ideal for remote work-from-home jobs. 

Create Your Workspace

Setting a home office allows you to create a dedicated space for work. This will enable you to establish a boundary between your professional tasks and your personal life. If you have a spare room, you can transform it into your ideal workspace; however, even a small corner of a room will suffice, provided you can set it up in a way that’s conducive to performing productive work. You can outfit this space with items such as: 

Connective devices (i.e. laptop, second monitor, tablet, etc…)Ergonomic desk chairDesk or counter dedicated to your workGood lighting

When you have a comfortable place to work, you can more effectively perform your work, which is crucial for optimum time management.  

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Use a Calendar

When you work remotely, you may find that the number of meetings you need to attend doubles or even triples. It’s easy to understand why as the only way to connect is via a virtual conference on a platform like Zoom. Naturally, you don’t want to forget to attend a meeting, so be sure that you check your calendar daily and set alarms so that you’re always on time. Once your calendar is filled in with meeting dates for the week, you can use it to plan the rest of your time so that you can schedule appropriate chunks of time for specific work tasks.  

Rely on Time Management Tools

The clock and your calendar are traditional tools you can rely on to help you stay on track, but there are also many new apps that you can try to improve your time management practices. There are apps designed to help you track your progress on work tasks, apps designed to boost your motivation, and apps that track how much time you’re spending on individual tasks. Take some time to research the digital tools and try one or two out to see if it enhances your time management skills. 

Set Deadlines

Although your employer may expect work tasks to be completed by deadlines, you can set your own deadlines for all sorts of tasks. You can create a workday plan with deadlines to ensure that you’re accomplishing your tasks following your preferred schedule. When working remotely, you are your boss for a considerable part of the day, so it’s up to you to police your schedule and work routine. Setting deadlines and sticking to them helps you develop positive, disciplined habits that support your productivity. 

Evaluate and Measure

To ensure that you’re managing your time and remote work effectively, you should take it upon yourself to evaluate and measure where you may be wasting time or not using time as effectively as you could be. When you work from home, it’s easy to take a moment here and there to answer a text or check your social media account. However, you don’t want these activities to cut into your workday because they can undermine your productivity, forcing you to have to work after hours when you should be enjoying your evening.  

By evaluating where you’re squandering your time, you can take steps to make changes so that you keep your work on track. You might also shift some of the activities you might do without much thought, like texting your partner or friends to your office break times.  

Consider Feedback

As you refine your time management practices, listen for feedback on your remote work performance from your employer or colleagues. It’s important for everyone involved with your work to feel like the process is going smoothly. If you’re well-organized, meeting your deadlines, and always prepared for meetings, it’s likely going to show–even across the digital spectrum. By prioritizing your time management strategies, you can continue to improve them and help your colleagues improve theirs. 

Keep these time management tips in mind as you develop your best practices for working remotely. You’ll know that they are working based on the productivity you measure in yourself and how great you feel about the job you’re doing. If you’re new to working from home and could use more advice, consider consulting with business and life coach Carson Tate. She can help you find actionable strategies to meet your professional and personal goals.

Carson Tate is the founder and managing partner of Working Simply, Inc., a business consulting firm that partners with organizations, business leaders and employees to enhance workplace productivity, foster employee engagement, and build personal and professional legacies.

She is the author of Work Simply: Embracing the Power of Your Personal Productivity Style, and just released, Own It. Love It. Make It Work.: How To Make Any Job Your Dream Job. Order your copy HERE! For more information, please visit www.carsontate.com.

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How to Achieve Work-Life Balance

How to Achieve Work-Life Balance

By Carson Tate on July 20, 2021

Everybody talks about it, but has anybody really seen that modern unicorn known as work-life balance? The truth is, you probably know many more individuals who are struggling with managing their personal and professional lives and never quite able to achieve that blissful, zen-like harmony between the two. Unexpected work meetings and deadlines, weekends overstuffed with long supermarket lines, oil changes, yard work, etc…, and the desperate need for a bit of rest–sound familiar?  

Here’s something to consider: work-life balance isn’t a destination, a place we arrive. Instead, it’s a perpetual motion, an ongoing relationship we need to strategically manage to maintain a healthy balance between the primary elements of our lives. It’s not easy and more effortless still for that balance to erode on one side or the other. However, with these tips, you may be able to tame that so-called lifestyle unicorn and achieve the work-life balance you crave. 

Peace of Mind Can Enhance Your Health

The best part of having a good work-life balance is the peace of mind that accompanies this achievement. When you’re overworking and your time is taking the hit, you’re going to suffer stress–even if you like your job. When this becomes a pattern, it can lead to chronic stress, eroding both your physical and mental health. So, yes, it feels good to achieve work-life balance because it’s actually good for us. Managing this balance won’t happen on its own, but you can take definitive steps to achieve it.  

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At Work, Prioritize

We spend a lot of time at work. Sometimes, because we know we will be on the job for hours, we may take our time checking emails or talking to work colleagues. Be mindful about the time you spend on non-essential tasks. When you’re at work, prioritize your day to get all your essential tasks accomplished as soon as possible. Of course, this isn’t always possible, but by prioritizing your top priorities, you can often escape from the office without taking work home with you for the night. Each day, begin with a plan so you can map out your top priorities and get to those first. 

Off Work, Self Care

How many times have you gotten to Sunday evening and felt as if you worked all weekend long? The fact is that our personal lives require work too–just of a different nature than our careers. Maintaining a household takes work. Caring for family members, including our pets, is work too. Having downtime from our jobs isn’t downtime at all. Nevertheless, your brain and body do need adequate rest. Just as you have to manage your work time effectively for improved work-life balance, you have to manage your time optimally too, or you’re apt to fritter it away with a seemingly endless stream of chores.  

The Importance of Work-Life Balance: Top Tips to Achieve It

Here are some more tips to help you improve your work-life balance so that you support your health needs as well as your enjoyment of your work, home life, and personal time. The more you practice these tips, the more likely they will become habitual for you, and that can translate into a great work-life balance for the long term. 

Make a Schedule – and Stick to It

Schedules allow us to keep our lives on track. The busier our lives are, the more crucial proper scheduling can be. Each week, try to create a realistic schedule for work as well as for home. Always include space for your downtime so you can relax and rejuvenate. Do your utmost to stick to set hours. Stay compartmentalized. Keep your work at work, and try not to let issues at home affect your mindset when you’re on the job. 

Stick to Your Strengths

You can lose a lot of time by doing things that aren’t in your wheelhouse. For instance, perform the types of work that you’re good at and delegate (or outsource) the chores you’re not good at (or don’t wish to perform) to others. In short, don’t try to do everything, or you’ll constantly feel as if you’re scrambling to get it all done. Instead, rely on your team at work and home. If you’re on your own at home and can afford it, hire someone to help with things like your yard work.  

Get Organized – Stay Organized

One of the keys to maintaining successful work and home life balance is to be organized. A disorganized workspace like a disorganized home can add a level of chaos to each day that you’re forced to contend with. You may not even realize it, but disorder can cause you stress. Focus on streamlining your office and your home in terms of functionality. Well-organized spaces won’t impede your workflow, and when you reduce clutter, you can eliminate stress.  

Understanding how to achieve work-life balance is a worthy goal in itself. In fact, make it a goal so that you continually focus on its achievement. When you manage both your work and home life effectively, you’ll find that you’re able to enjoy your life more, and you’ll undoubtedly diminish the unnecessary stress that can occur when the two halves of your life are out of whack.  

Carson Tate is a certified professional and life coach who can help you establish a plan to achieve work-life balance in the context of your own life. When there are snags, as there often are, she can help you to problem-solve, so that individual problems don’t derail your hard-won balance. Contact her to learn more.

Carson Tate is the founder and managing partner of Working Simply, Inc., a business consulting firm that partners with organizations, business leaders and employees to enhance workplace productivity, foster employee engagement, and build personal and professional legacies.

She is the author of Work Simply: Embracing the Power of Your Personal Productivity Style, and just released, Own It. Love It. Make It Work.: How To Make Any Job Your Dream Job. Order your copy HERE! For more information, please visit www.carsontate.com.

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