Personal Productivity Tips #11

Personal success guru Brian Tracy stressed the importance of order in the workplace. He advocated the idea "Start and end your work day with a clear desk". This idea reduces the time we spend searching for missing papers and items under that piles of mess. Try it today!    

Avoiding Death by PowerPoint

I believed many of us have attended seminars and conferences where poor usage of PowerPoint killed our interest. The PowerPoint slides were crowded with too many texts, bullet points, animated gifs and others that distracted us. Apparently, this problem is so severe that the term ‘death by PowerPoint’ was coined to address it.

So, how to avoid ‘death by PowerPoint’? In your next presentation, I suggest that you use the tips below to make your PowerPoint presentation more impactful;

1. Contrast, contrast, contrast – Ensure that the fonts and background in contrast with each other. Personally, I prefer light font colors such as white or yellow against dark background such as black or dark blue.

2. Images as background – Do not use colorful images as background as you might be having difficulty trying to select the best font color to contrast it. Your audience will strain their eyes reading the texts on your slides.

3. Font size – How to ensure that your selection of font size is the right one? The best way is to sit at the last row of your function and ask yourself, ‘Can I read what is written on the screen? If you can’t, adjust the font size and try again.

5. Limit your bullet points – Limit the use of bullet points to six per page. The rule of thumb is, the lesser, the better. Too many bullet points per page will clutter your slide.

6. Using images – A picture speaks a thousand words. Use images to enhance the impact of your presentation. However, choose only images that are related to your topics and make sure that they are sharp, clear and large enough to be seen.

7. Use short sentences – Avoid writing all your script onto your PowerPoint slides and reading them to your audience. This is a sure way of killing your presentation. Instead, use keywords (I called them ‘trigger words’) to remind you of your speaking points. As with bullet points, maximum number of words per bullet point is six. (This is known as the 6 x 6 Rule).

8. Diagrams – When using diagram such as charts, ensure that it is properly labeled and is large enough to be seen by the people in the last row. Use combination of colors that can help to clarify borders and give meaning to your charts.

9. Animations – Ensure that your PowerPoint slides are free from animated gifs (moving cartoons or pictures) as they cause distractions. You can animate your key points for transition purposes but do not overdo it. Again, the rule is; the lesser, the better.          

Personal Productivity Tips #10

Multi-tasking is a myth. Brain scientists have found out that our brain can only process and perform one task at a time. When we 'multi-task', our brain actually has to switch on and off as we move from one task to another, rather than processing all of them simultaneously. This causes our brain to function less efficiently just like switching our car on and off when we change direction. The impact on personal productivity? Rather than doing many tasks at one time, we should concentrate on one task and complete it before moving to another one. Have a productive week ahead...

Personal Productivity Tips #9

When was the last time we completely disconnected from work, including thinking about it, checking email etc, for any extended period of time? According to experts, we need to designate at least one night a week to totally let go of the office (not thinking or doing any tasks) from the time we leave work until the time we get up the following morning. As they say, there is more to life than work...Have a productive week ahead...

Personal Productivity Tips #8

Schwartz et al (2010) in their book titled "Be Excellent at Anything" stated that we need 4 sources of energy to operate at our best namely physical energy (sustainability), emotional energy (security), mental energy (self-expression) and spiritual energy (significance). Each time any of these are out of balance, we are operating below our optimum level.  

Initiating and Maintaining Change

I am sure that many of us are familiar with the phrase “Change or perish”. Initiating and maintaining change is hard work. Without proper techniques, most often, the consequences of change is failure.  

Chip and Dan Heath in their bestselling book “Switch” outlined several steps to initiate and maintain change in our personal and professional life.

Follow the Bright Spots – Research and investigate what’s working in the industry or other people and clone it.

Script the Critical Moves - Make the change small and specific. Describe in detail the behaviour that needs to be changed. Make is as vivid as possible.

Point to the Destination - What is the final outcome of the change process? Is it increased output? Cleaner and more orderly work space? Reduced accidents?

Find the Feeling – Make people feel something about the change process. If it’s to reduce wastage, show them the statistics. Pile up that one-side-printed paper on the table. Personalize the stories of the previous accidents victims. Show them the horrible accidents scene and say. “This could happen to all of us”.

Shrink the Change – Break down the change into smaller steps. Set smaller objectives along the way. Allocate each task to an individual or team and monitor accordingly.

Grow Our People - Cultivate a sense of identity and instill the growth mindset in the new environment. Put up posters, highlight the new identity in meetings, briefings and during coffee talk.