I went for a walk last weekend. A very long walk. As I sit here aching from the hills I climbed I look back on that walk and I think about what I achieved: Exercise – As well as a virtual commute around the local park for 30 mins every morning, I like to feel Read More
Category: Productivity
How to respond to meeting requests
I organise a fair number of meetings and I am invited to a lot more meetings. I do have a Power Automate Flow in place to automatically respond based on whether I am available and whether there is an agenda (Link), however, most other people do not. This post is intended to help people understand Read More
Daily and Weekly Ceremonies for Productivity
I have been speaking at conferences on the benefits of daily and weekly ceremonies to help with building habits to increase productivity. I did blog about this very briefly a while back but this blog is expanding on the purpose and benefit of the ceremonies that I use to manage my tasks and my time. Read More
Create a To Do Task from a Teams Message
Oh, how I have been waiting for this! As I successfully get more communications in Teams, unfortunately I pick up more tasks from Teams messages. But as Planner morphs to Tasks, I see more of my To Do tasks in Teams so yet again, I have less reasons to leave Teams. Now to the issue Read More
Automating Responses to Meeting Invites
A while back I was involved in a discussion about the need for agendas when accepting meeting invites. The general consensus was that agendas are required to allow the attendees to be able to understand whether they can commit to the expected time commitments and, if there is a conflict, effectively prioritise meetings. See my Read More
My Meeting Manifesto
My Invite to You I will expect you to attend my meeting if: I provide you with the knowledge you need to make the meeting a success, which includes: What preparation do you need to complete to contribute to the meeting? What do I expect from you during the meeting? What do I expect from Read More
Ceremonies for productive work
At CPS (www.cps.co.uk, @CPS_Solutions), we have been extremely lucky to have been able to adjust our ways of working to accommodate the restrictions that have resulted from the Covid 19 pandemic. As a consultancy with staff located all over England, we have worked and collaborated remotely for many years and so for most staff it Read More
Meeting Agendas – Essential or optional?
Last week I threw a question out on Twitter and I guess I hit a nerve! I have long been of the belief that if you want me to attend a meeting then you really need to let me know what you need from me so I can do you the courtesy of fully committing Read More
Carry out a Quick Poll in Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams is being used for a lot of meetings at the moment and depending on the number of attendees there are a few features that may be missing or not obvious to use. Following on from a thread on a community forum I wanted to share the solution to a couple of features: Raise Read More
End of Year Task Tidy Up
It’s the end of the year, you’re on annual leave to enjoy the holidays, rest, recharge your batteries and then get back to work in January with a tons of energy and enthusiasm, and no outstanding tasks. Wait a minute. That last part! That’s not true, I have a ton of stuff left in To-Do Read More