How to Get More Done Each Day and Lower Your Stress Levels

Have you ever had a day in the office go by and you felt like you didn’t accomplish anything of real importance? If you answered yes, you are not alone. If your day begins like most other public school administrators or secretaries, there are emails waiting, calls to return, projects that are overdue, interruptions, family emergencies, the latest student disciplinary problem and the list goes on and on.

The reason we feel overwhelmed from time to time is because the plan we are using doesn’t work as well as it could. It is bound to fail because we let our “school office happenstance” dictate what happens to us. We feel manipulated by others due to their own inability to plan. We become frustrated by the people that don’t return our phone calls or emails. And since they seem to be so irresponsible, we wonder just how they keep their jobs.

Here is one simple way to help you get control of your day before it begins. Fifteen minutes before you end your day, start preparing for the next one by getting prepared. Take a 3X5 post it note and write out the six main things you need to get done the following day. Next prioritize the list with a 1-a for the first thing you need to finish, a 1-b for the second thing you need to finish and so forth. The idea is to prioritize the things you must do first or work on until you can go no further. If you finish all the items on the list add a few more (this rarely happens).

The goal of this system is to give yourself a structured way to realistically accomplish the main things you must finish each day. When you are able to implement this simple but tested system, you will feel good about what you are achieving on a daily basis. Knowing days turn into weeks, and weeks turn into years, you will find yourself living a more productive and satisfying professional life.

Tom Borg Consulting, LLC works with public schools and colleges and helps them attract and keep students and their parents support. For more information on our services please contact us at 734-404-5909 or visit our website at www.tomborgconsulting.com

Don't Let Limited Thinking Stop Your Creativity

One thing is for sure, if you keep on doing what you have always done you will get less.
Here is a test designed to help stop thinking in the same old way.

What is the reason for the logical sequence of numbers below?
8-5-4-9-7-6-3-2-0

The answer: they are in alphabetical order.

If you didn't get that answer you are ready to start thinking outside the box and get different results.

With today's cutbacks in education it is critical you look for ways to create fresh solutions to your problems.

Tom Borg Consulting, LLC., is a consulting group that specializes in without the box strategic planning, leadership training, team building, and customer culture transformation, for public school systems in Michigan and the United States. For a free 30 minute consulting session or for more information please call 734-404-5909 or visit our website at www.TomBorgConsulting.com

3 Ways to Start Taking Action Outside the Box

For many school administrators and teachers, thinking outside the box is about as far as they get. They don’t take any action. Although their intentions are good, it seems they reach a certain sticking point and can’t go any further. It is as if they are mired in thick, sticky glue that won’t allow them to move through the door and make changes that will grow their organization. If an  company cannot grow, it cannot create careers for people looking to be hired by that organization.

Of course, the bigger the organization, the harder it is to follow through and make the new changes work. As I have said before “People do prefer comfortable problems versus uncomfortable solutions.” Despite the fact that things need to change in order to eliminate the frustration and challenges that are facing them, people tend to want keep doing things the same old comfortable way. It is as if they are afraid of being successful, because it will bring new challenges that might make their lives more difficult. This type of thinking will not build a stronger economy and create more jobs.

Denis Waitley tells the story of a primitive tribe of natives in South America who live in adobe huts. The people of this tribe have been suffering from an illness that causes premature death.
It was discovered that the cause of this illness are the bites of insects that have laid eggs in the walls of their adobe huts. When it was revealed to the leaders of this tribe that the reason their people were dying prematurely from the bite of these insects, and that they should move, they refused.  It was more comforting for them to remain and do nothing, and continue to live and die as their predecessors had in the past.

Here are two ways you can help your school system progress by stretching the boundaries of how you operate. First, hold a group meeting and discuss all the obstacles that could prevent the identified and necessary action from being taken. Let everyone contribute their concerns as to why things would not work if your organization did things differently.

Once that has been exhausted, identify the overwhelming benefits that will come by doing something a different way. What advantages will your employees and management team, as well as the organization, be able to enjoy, by incorporating the changes discussed? Make a written list of the immediate and midterm benefits, and how they will positively impact the people in your organization. Discuss what the long term effects might be, and how everyone will gain. Elaborate on how this change could take your school system to the next level and position it for future success.

Finally, during this group meeting, identify the next steps that must be taken, who will be responsible for taking them, and schedule follow up meetings to adjust the path that is being taken to achieve the goals identified. Don’t forget to schedule the “milestones” to celebrate the victory when the goals been identified. By following through with this approach, you will be able to take action outside the box and succeed.

For information on our services please contact us at 734-404-5909, email tomborg@tomborgconsulting.com or visit our website.

Good Meetings Make Good Sense

I was doing a brain storming session with a client recently and an issue they were having with the  
inaccuracy of their website, was identified. Several participants complained that
no one was asking for their input from their department, and as a result, the organization had a website that was improperly informing their customers about new services that were being provided.

Good public relations begins at home. Happy staff equals happy customers.
Meaningful and staff meetings can be a very powerful tool in helping your company meet the needs and expectations of your customers. As situations come up, mini-meetings and brain-storming sessions that quickly solve problems can also be used very effectively.

Regular meetings held with a purpose can keep the lines of communication open.

Often employees feel stymied in their ability to communicate their feelings and viewpoints to management. The staff  feel like second-rate people because they are never given an opportunity to be heard. What most organizations lack is a structure to insure that the meetings are held on a regular basis.

To insure that the meetings are effective in your school district, it is important that some preparation be made before each meeting. What are the challenges that need to be addressed? What is being done about the issues that were discussed at the last meeting? What is going right? Why? How can we make things even better? By asking these kinds of questions, you are building a framework to give communication within your company a place to grow and develop.

By holding meaningful and action-oriented meetings, you make it easy for your employees to communicate with each other as well as with management. Many times, it’s not a “generation gap” that prevents teamwork within a school district, but a “communication gap.” By following through with a plan for communicating, you are insuring a clearer, more effective form of constant communication in your organization. As a result, by keeping miscommunication to a minimum, you will have a happier and more productive staff.

For more information on how to help your public school team run the best meetings possible please contact our office at 734-404-5909 or visit our website at: www.TomBorgConsulting.com