Productivity Expert Laura Stack Explores “What To Do When There’s Too Much To Do” in New Book

June 13, 2012 - PRLog -- DENVER, Colorado, June 13, 2012 – In today’s new economy workplace, businesses are operating with reduced staffs and requiring them to do more. At a time when simply having a job is a coup, employees are working longer hours just to remain employed. In her fifth book  "What To Do When There's Too Much To Do," (Berrett-Koehler; on-sale June 26; $15.95), time management and productivity expert Laura Stack redefines workplace productivity by offering effective strategies for doing less, shaving 90 minutes off of each workday, and actually creating greater results in the process.

Stack’s newest book, hailed as the “Work Less, More Success” guide to time management, addresses the changing face of business in the post-2008 economic downfall and guides readers through the process of adapting to new, more demanding roles in the workplace. An unusual twist in Stack’s strategy is perhaps its most compelling feature: Do less; accomplish more; and earn back 90 minutes of each day.

“Everyone has too much to do, and nobody really cares how many tasks you crossed off a to-do list if key projects keep falling through the cracks,” Stack says. “If you’re staying late at the office every night and are still behind on important tasks, you have to pause and consider, ‘what’s wrong with this picture?’”

Stack utilizes her 20-plus years of experience as a productivity expert and consultant who has fine tuned her understanding of workplace dynamics and their influence on productivity to pave a sensible approach to accomplishing tasks efficiently and thoroughly. Once learned and put into practice, Stack’s new formula for workplace productivity can shave up to 90 valuable minutes off of a workday—90 minutes to go home earlier, have dinner with family, and live a more well-balanced existence.

“The first misconception that needs to be addressed is to not confuse activity with productivity,” Stack says.

Stack points to studies that have repeatedly shown that 60-hour workweeks result in a 25-percent decrease in productivity. Exhaustion erodes judgment and performance, and there’s nothing productive about correcting mistakes later on.

One government report Stack cites in her book, released in August 2011, finds that American productivity declined for two consecutive quarters for the first time since 2008 due to poorly managed time and tasks.  As she has been doing for more than 20 years, Stack teaches professionals how to transform their ever-expanding to-do lists into functional, workable systems by focusing on those tasks that really matter and letting go of those that don’t.

In “What To Do When There’s Too Much To Do,” Stack suggests splitting to-do lists into a Master list and a High Impact Tasks list, or “HIT list.” While the Master list tracks everything that needs to get done, the HIT list includes only a reasonable number of items that must be accomplished within a day.

Stack also introduces the concept of task triage, derived from the medical field, to assign levels of urgency of each item:

P1: You will get fired if this isn’t done today.
P2: A valuable long-term activity that should be done soon.
P3: Someone will be unhappy if this isn’t done eventually.
P4: Human “pain-management” activities, such as socializing or Facebook.

“Reduce, reduce, reduce!,” is Stack’s mantra. “Employees can’t work any harder than they already are, so they must find ways to work smarter. “

Avoiding time-wasters, such as social media; learning how to graciously refuse work; and establishing routines to make decisions more quickly are just some of the additional areas that Stack explores in her book.

For more information, visit The Productivity Pro website, send an Email to Laura@TheProductivityPro.com, or call (303) 471-7401.

About Laura Stack:

Laura Stack  is a time management and productivity expert who has been speaking and writing about human potential and peak performance since 1992. She has implemented employee productivity improvement programs at Wal-Mart, Cisco Systems, UBS, Aramark, and Bank of America. Stack presents keynotes and seminars internationally for leaders, entrepreneurs, salespeople, and professional services firms on improving output, lowering stress, and saving time in the workplace.

The president of The Productivity Pro®, Inc., a time management firm specializing in high-stress environments, Stack is the bestselling author of five books: "What To Do When There's Too Much To Do" (2012); “SuperCompetent” (2010); “The Exhaustion Cure” (2008), “Find More Time” (2006), “Leave the Office Earlier” (2004), and “What to Do When There’s Too Much to Do” (scheduled for release in June 2012). The 2011-2012 President of the National Speakers Association and recipient of the Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation, Stack has served as a spokesperson for Microsoft, 3M, Xerox, and Office Depot, and is the creator of The Productivity Pro® planner by Day-Timer. Widely regarded as one of the leading experts in the field of employee productivity and workplace issues, Stack has been featured nationally on the CBS Early Show, CNN, and in USA Today and the New York Times.

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