I’ve written before about how I love to get up early because that’s my most productive time of the day — but I don’t think we’ve ever talked about how to optimize those productive hours to get the most stuff done. I have my own tricks; I’d love to hear what you guys use as well. (I usually can be focused enough without time management techniques during this time — but they can be super helpful during other times of the day. Pictured: Pomodoro Kitchen Timer for Action Logging, originally uploaded by AndyRobertsPhotos. )

1) Know what you want to do. I always find this time is best to focus on ONE THING, not a whole to-do list. I don’t even WRITE my to-do list until later in the day, to be honest. When I get up early, I do the one thing that I need/want to do, and nothing else.

2) Leave some work unfinished so you can start in the middle. Writers are often advised to finish their day in the middle of a sentence, instead of at the end, so the next day you can just pick up where you left off.

3) Know your direction: forward or backward? I usually want to use the time to push “forward” — write new words, organize my research or my thoughts in new ways — but sometimes I prefer to go “backwards” and review work I’ve already done, such as when I want to edit something closely.

4) Avoid time sucks. I don’t look at email until 9 AM, for example, and I save other things that easily expand into longer projects for later in the day, when my focus is already not at its best. For example, in my law days, I saved research until the afternoon when I could, preferring to use the mornings for organizing the research or writing — now I save things like RSS feeds, Twitter, and Pinterest for the afternoons or evenings when I can.  On days when I really need to focus, I avoid turning on my computer when I can, and work with pen and paper instead.

5) Protect your productive time. If you’re super productive in the morning, don’t let friends or colleagues schedule breakfast meetings. If your best time is the afternoon, keep chatty coworkers out of your office.

Readers, what are some of your top productive times? How do you make the most out of them?

As today is Administrative Assistant’s Day, I thought we’d have an open thread about what the best thing your secretary/assistant has ever done for you. We’ve talked about what you can delegate to assistants before — what DO you guys delegate? What do you look for in a great assistant?

For my own $.02, the best assistant I ever had was only mine for a short period — she was attached to a partner down the hall who had a niche practice, and when the partner moved offices, so did my secretary. But in addition to being pleasant and nice, she was really smart — I felt like I could give her anything and she would do a great job with it. I wish I could remember something specific she did that went above and beyond, but really she was just generally excellent!

(Pictured: Files, originally uploaded to Flickr by Velo Steve.)

Reader B writes with a great question: should she leave her well-located office and move to a bigger one down the hall?

There is a large office that has been vacant in our firm for 9 months or so (another associate was let go). I have a small office, but I like the location of it. It’s right next to the partner I work for and the assistant we share, and there’s always activity around it, which suits my work style. The large office is down the hall a bit, in a quieter area with less activity and visibility, all of which are “cons” for me. I’ve been going back and forth with asking to move (I know they’d say yes). I think the large office looks better to clients, I’ve been here for several years now, and I’m the only attorney still in a small office, the rest are occupied by paralegals. Any thoughts as to size versus location and which is more important?

Tough, tough question. My gut reaction is you should stay put because you seem happy in your current office… but your points about the paralegals and clients are serious things to consider.  (Pictured: Office Hallway HDR Test, originally uploaded to Flickr by WintrHawk.)  Whichever one you choose, you may want to read our suggestions on office decor.

I suppose the first question to ask is whether there are any dream offices — i.e., larger offices, near your partner or in other active areas — even if they may be occupied at the moment? If so, first look at who’s occupying them.  Does anyone have their door closed frequently because the activity level is too much for him or her? Is anyone far from his or her assistant? I might approach that person and see if he or she would be interested in moving down the hall to the vacant office, perhaps with the promise of a nice lunch out on you (or help moving?) or something of the like. If that doesn’t work out, have a conversation with whoever is in charge of office assignments and put in an informal request to have your dream office once it becomes vacant.

If your choice is still between the small but well-located office or the larger but remote office, I think you have a few questions to ask yourself, such as:

• What percentage of your time is spent in meetings? Will this percentage greatly increase in one year, or two years?  Are there conference rooms nearby that you can use for meetings instead (and a reliable reservation system to make sure you have a room when you need it)?  Alternatively, can some of your meetings (such as new business pitches, etc) be held over lunch?  If so, invest a little time in perfecting the networking lunch, such as picking one nearby spot with excellent service (and decent food) for lunch, and getting to know the staff there so the meal goes incredibly smoothly.  If you would still prefer to hold meetings in your office, continue to the next question…
• Can you declutter your current office, perhaps by claiming file space near the vacant office?  If your office is smaller than everyone else’s, it should be as clean and as orderly as possible (although in general, readers have said that that a messy office only crosses the line “when it looks like you can’t get work done in there.”)
• Finally: Do you need to break any bad patterns?  You mention “the partner I work for.” I don’t know the particulars of your situation — maybe many associates in your firm are assigned to only help one partner.  But in some companies, it can be a bad sign if you’re only working with one boss.  Seriously take stock of that relationship: are you getting the opportunities you need for growth?  Are you learning what you need to accomplish your goals, whether you want to become partner, go in house, open your own practice, etc?  (Even if your goal is to be a stay at home mom, I would advise working with as many people as possible so you have numerous doors open to you if/when you return to work.)  Would you benefit from feedback from other partners?  If you take stock of that relationship and don’t like what you see… moving offices could be a great way to break up the pattern that has been established, and to start working with other partners at your firm.

Readers, what are your thoughts — would you prefer a big office, or a well-located one?  How much does “keeping up with the Joneses” play into it, versus having an office that suits Reader B’s workstyle? 

Today, reader D wonders if she has to make her own Franken-planner to find the absolute best planner out there…

I realize this may be a bit too late to be useful for the upcoming new year, I would love to see a post regarding the various paper calendars/planners Corporette users prefer.  I was digging through archives and read the entire post/comment thread regarding notebook and legal pad preferences, and I thought a similar thread about planners would be just as interesting.  A girlfriend and I struggle every year with finding the “perfect” planner, to the point we try to cobble together some sort of Franken-planner on our own.  We’ve actually discussed starting our own company to remedy this problem.

• Daily planning: As I mentioned, I recently gave up my Palm Pilot and switched to an Android phone. I looked around for a good calendar program, and came up with the following solution: I use Google Calendar (for free) and sync it with Pimlical (which cost about $25 if I remember correctly).  Google Calendar is great because it gives me notifications on my Android, my iPad, by email, and more — it’s very hard for me to forget appointments or whatnot with the system!  Pimlical is great, though, for a more permanent record of what I was doing and when.  I tend to take a lot of notes in my calendar program — for example, every time I see a doctor I record my vitals and any topics discussed on the appointment in Google Calendar. Oh: another thing that’s nice about Google Calendar is that I can invite Outlook users to events — so when we book an airline flight, for example, I can instantly give my husband the details and put those on his calendar as well.
• Longer distance planning:  Something I’ve done for a few years now is to use my Palm Pilot software to print a yearly calendar, with each month getting its own page.  I liked Palm because each day was a big enough block that you could write in it, but with only 12 pages the whole “packet” wasn’t too huge or crazy to actually use.  I always put all vacation days on it — federal holidays and the like — and would primarily use the packet to plan vacations.  (When vacation details are finally set I put everything relevant into the Google Calendar.)  When I was planning my “maternity leave” for Corporette I used the planner to keep an eye on which posts I had scheduled for which day, which needed more editing, which days still needed a post or two.
• I also have a big monthly calendar (for 2012 I used Snapfish to make baby-centric ones and then gave them as gifts to my parents, my in-laws, my grandmother, and my brother) that we hang on the wall — I also write friends’ birthdays on that one (and, um, decorate it with stickers, because I like to indulge my inner 8-year-old).  It’s great for glancing at the calendar occasionally to see whose birthday is coming up, what the date will be next Wednesday, etc, etc.  Something I really liked about Snapfish was that I could select individual dates to recognize — and so, for example, I have a picture from our wedding album on May 30 to commemorate our wedding anniversary… for each grandparent’s birthday I have a picture of him or her holding my son… it came out really nice.  (After coupons and the promotions they had going on, each calendar only cost about $9, so it was more about the time invested to make it… but I’m really glad I did.)
• Finally: I have a little teeny calendar at my desk that I got through Vistaprint — basically each day just shows me the monthly calendar (just the big numbers) and a picture (of course this one is baby-themed as well).  (Just an FYI: Vistaprint is offering 50% off all custom-printed calendars, including little desk-sized ones like the one I got.)

How messy is TOO messy of an office? I’ve worked with all sorts of people when it comes to this. There are the people with the super-bare office — completely clean desks with perhaps one photo on it. I’ve worked with folks where it was so messy that it seemed like they could film an episode of Hoarders in there. And I’ve worked with people where it was “controlled chaos” — one of my bosses memorably kept about 10 tall piles of manilla folders on her desk at all times and would have to go through each pile to find what she needed. Personally, I’ve always been on the messier side of the spectrum, but with the caveat that I can almost always find what I need in under ten minutes.

I suppose I’ve assumed something about each of these coworkers — it is, after all, a bit of a window into how the mind works. I always imagine the bare-office people sitting there grinding their teeth at the slightest noise outside their office that interrupts their concentration — the kind of people who, if their daily schedule gets off by five minutes, their day is irreparably ruined. On the converse, I’ve imagined the truly messy office people (the “how did they get that pile of papers so high?” people) always think a clean office is a good idea in theory… when they get around to it, right after they finish that novel and those other 3 ambitious projects that they never quite seem to start.  That said, for my $.02, the only people I viewed as “less professional” because of their office space had to do more with decor (a big sports-related beanbag chair, an overly pink, matchy-matchy desk set) and less to do with “mess.”

But as a junior employee, are you better advised to keep your office space orderly and neat — even if clients and superiors don’t visit your office frequently? When does a messy office cross the line?

Readers, what do your offices look like?  What do you wish they looked like? What assumptions do you make about other people based on their office space?

For those of you who live a flight away from your parents, I thought I’d share my trick for the holidays, which I use to avoid traveling with gifts.  It’s pretty simple, so here goes:

I send packages to Babette.

See, my mother’s name is Linda Vogele — so we’ve worked out a system through the years where if she receives a package for Babette Vogele (and this is kind of a year-round system at this point), she knows not to open the package.  She puts it aside in one of her many closets (ah, the joys of living in Ohio!) and when I come home I open all of the packages, wrap them, and slip them under the tree.  If it’s an occasion for which I’m not traveling home (say, her birthday or Mother’s Day or whatnot), I can direct my father to the appropriate box and he’ll open it and package it nicely and present it whenever her other gifts are being opened. (My mom tends to open all of the mail that comes to the house so this is primarily a problem with her stuff.) It’s a simple system, but I like it because it saves me from stressing about how to get gifts home, and it also means that if I see a good deal online for something my mother would like I can act on it, without having to remember to tell her that it’s coming, what it’s for, or who gets it.

Why Babette?  Well… why not?  We don’t know anyone with the name personally, so there’s no confusion.

Readers, what are your tips and tricks for holiday shopping?

(Pictured: Ribbons & Bows, originally uploaded to Flickr by david_s_carter.)

What toiletries do you keep in your desk drawer?  We’ve talked about the clothes you keep in the office, the food you nibble on during the workday, and the tech stuff you have to have for the office — but what about toiletries?  I have such an established list that, when my brother started his new job, I gave him a little bag filled with these items — they’re helpful for everyone!  (Pictured: junk drawer #1, my middle desk drawer, originally uploaded to Flickr by zeelicious.)

1. New-Skin. Yes, it’s an electronic world, but there are still far more papers to deal with than you’d think — which means papercuts abound — which means every open wound increases your chances of getting sick. My preferred method for dealing with papercuts is to apply a liquid bandage like New-Skin. It dries quickly, stays on all day (even after you’ve washed your hands), and it doesn’t leave that gummy residue on your nails and fingers.

2. Purell. This is another great way to ward off colds — and it’s particularly helpful to keep at your desk if you commute to work via public transportation (you can clean your hands the minute you get to the office), or if you shake hands with a lot of people during the course of your job. If you get one with aloe, it won’t dry your hands out as much.  (And, someone recently gave me the tip that alcohol-based cleaners (like Purell) are a much better habit than antibacterial ones (such as the richly scented ones available at some mall stores).  Of course, regular soap and water is best.

3. Thermometer. The higher up the food chain you go, the more you’ll find that a little head cold is not an acceptable reason to stay away from the office if work needs to be done in it. That said, it’s generally poor form to come to work (or stay at work) if you’re contagious. Obviously you’ve got a thermometer at home to know when you’re running a fever — but it can be helpful to have one at the office for those occasional stretches where you’re practically living at the office, or where you suddenly feel lousy in the middle of the afternoon. I’ve always done well with a digital one, like the Vicks Comfort-Flex Thermometer.  (If you really want to get fancy, get a temporal artery thermometer, such as Exergen Temporal Artery Thermometer, available at Amazon for around $30 — you swipe it across your forehead and get a very accurate reading.  The new mom in me loves it.)

4. Preservative-free eye drops. Long hours of staring at the computer = dry eyes. For some women this is a particular problem. My suggestion: invest in preservative-free drops. If you use the drops only occasionally, then you’ll be happy to open up a new vial of eye drops. If you use them frequently, you’ll be glad you’re not overloading your eyes with preservatives. I recommend TheraTears Lubricant Eye Drops, Single-Use Containers.

5. Visine, Clearasil, and cover-up. Yes, I’m recommending you get both Visine and preservative-free eye drops (because while Visine gets the red out, it can be incredibly drying for your eyes).  So use the preservative-free eye drops to soothe your eyes (and possibly fix the underlying problem causing the redness).  Still:  Visine can be handy in a number of situations, such as when you’ve been crying and need to freshen up, and when you want your bloodshot eyes to look better (such as for a big meeting or a new date). My other use for Visine:  if you have an angry red zit, dab a bit of Visine on a Q-tip (or a tissue wrapped around a pencil’s eraser) and use it to make your zit a bit less red.  (I also recommend keeping Clearasil and cover-up on hand.)

6. Floss. You probably won’t use this one a lot, but you’ll thank me that rare time when you do use it — like when you’ve got something in your teeth and have to run to a partner’s or executive’s office. My favorite is Glide.  (Although in a pinch, tape flags and folded Post-It Notes work as well.)

7. Eye-makeup remover. There are a lot of reasons for keeping eye-makeup remover with you in the office. Personally, I’ve always used it on those those nights where you’re stuck in the office in front of the computer for hours on end.  Maybe it’s just me, but 16+ hours of wearing mascara makes my eyes feel, well, crunchy.  Another big reason for having eye-makeup remover: occasionally, emotions may screw up your eye-makeup. Whether you’re crying for joy, sorrow, or frustration or anger (and hopefully you’re doing this behind closed doors), your eye makeup may need to be redone entirely in order to “save face” when you stick your head out of your office.  I’m a fan of Neutrogena Hydrating Eye Makeup Remover.

8. Advil. Just give in to the idea that you’ll likely be at the office when you get a lot of headaches/cramps/aches, and invest in an economy-size bottle.

9. Tampons and/or pads.

10. Basic make-up (if you don’t already carry it in your purse). On the rare day that you can get to the gym, or when you walk to work, or when you need to re-do your makeup, you’ll be set.

Readers, what toiletries do you keep on hand at the office?

So a few months ago, I got to meet the founders of this new site, Hoseanna, and was introduced to what I seriously think is a great idea: letting busy women put some of those fundamental things (the ones you buy again and again) on auto-ship. That way, you don’t have to waste valuable mental space (or that even rarer commodity: free time) over these things — they just magically show up at your door on your schedule.

When the site launched it was just a curated hosiery collection (hence the name, Hoseanna) — but the site recently expanded. They still have legwear (now with more brands, including Berkshire, Calvin Klein, DKNY, Hue, and more). But the new site delves into some of those other little things that women hate to buy (and especially hate to ask their significant others to buy): feminine care like pads and tampons, as well as intimate things like condoms and lubricants. They even have a bunch of brands in the “health and beauty” category — you know, the items that even YOU manage to grab the wrong item off the shelf, no matter how much you think you know what you want. Alba, Aveeno, Biore, Blistex, Burt’s Bees, Carmex, ChapStick — you can put it all on auto-ship. I also like that the box includes a monthly surprise treat — and that now, as a bonus, you can earn shopping dollars for future Hoseanna purchases when you refer a friend.

This video explains what they do a bit better (and a bit more amusingly) than I do…

Don’t forget that we’re currently running a giveaway with the service — click here to enter to win a $50 shopping credit to try out Hoseanna!

Not only do I consider myself a bit of a tech geek, but I specialize in a weird subset of tech geekiness: tech for the office.  These are my top techy things to keep at the office — readers, what do you keep?  (Check out our prior discussions on clothes to keep at the office, as well as food to keep at the office.)

Gadgets

1. Refrigerator — This was one of my all-time favorite tech purchases for my office (and it lasted forever).  I bought a super, super small fridge for my office — so small it could barely fit a six-pack of Coke.  I kept water and soda chilled, as well as cheese sticks, lemon juice, cheese, salad dressing — even leftover food.  You can find them for around $50 (look up “mini refrigerator,” “portable refrigerator,” “travel refrigerator”) and up.

2. Extra chargers for your phone, Blackberry, and any other personal gadgets.  I’ve never regretted the $40 or so the extra cord cost me.

3. Speakers for your iPod or iPhone. This doesn’t need a lot of explanation, but you may want to brush up on the etiquette of listening to music at the office, particularly when other people can hear it.  For my own $.02, I think it’s fine to quietly listen to music if it’s after working hours, but “quietly” is the key — the person in the neighboring office should never have to come over and ask you to turn it down.

4. Phone headset. If you log lots of time on the phone — on conference calls or in meetings — a good headset might be worth an investment.

5. USB heated gloves (pictured above). If you have poor circulation and are always freezing, you may want to prepare for those long stretches in front of the computer by purchasing these USB-heated gloves. They plug into your computer and warm your hands as you type and click your way through the day.

Download

6. Leechblock. I’ve written before of my affection for Leechblock to help keep you focused.

7. RescueTime. Seriously consider signing up for this service if you’re wasting a lot of time and wonder where it went — it logs every online activity.

8. Consider installing a bookmarklet for ShoppingNotes — if you see an item of clothing that you wish were on sale, you click the bookmarklet, and  the free service monitors the price for any adjustment.  I’ve gotten some sick deals by using this service!

9. LogMeIn. Talk with your boss about this, but LogMeIn lets you log into your office computer from home (or your home computer from your office).

10. XMarks. As someone who alternates between multiple computers, I love XMarks — it syncs my bookmarks across all of my computers (and browsers).  This is handy for me, both because I have a crazy folder/filing system for some bookmarks, but also because I now don’t need to remember what device I originally found a new website.  If you upgrade to the premium (paid) version of Xmarks, it will even sync your bookmarks to your iPhone, Android, or Blackberry.

Software

Most businesses supply you with all the software you need. Still, I’ve had great success with a few programs and had to recommend them.

11. PDF Factory (or something similar). This program is hugely helpful if you sit far from the printer, if you want more control over picking up your printouts, or if you email a lot of PDF’d documents. (For the lawyers out there, it’s very helpful if you frequently review documents in .tif format, as well as if you print cases from Lexis or Westlaw.) Basically, when you click “print” you can choose to print to PDF Factory. The program opens a new window on your computer, and begins to compile a PDF. When you’ve finished printing, you can save the PDF to your hard drive, e-mail it to a coworker, and/or print it to your local printer.

12. Microsoft OneNote 2010 (or Evernote, if you’re comfortable with the cloud).  This allows you to create “notebooks” that will be word searchable, printable, e-mailable, and so forth. I primarily find OneNote helpful in working on a project — planning a vacation or a wedding, decorating an apartment — but it’s also helpful in keeping track of restaurant reviews, recipes, articles full of gift ideas, and more. (I also find it useful on an organizational and environmental standpoint, because we now have a single place to put all those articles we used to just print out and leave in various places in our apartments.) (I prefer OneNote, but I know a lot of folks out there prefer Evernote for this kind of thing.)

13. Dragon NaturallySpeaking. This is pricier than the others, but this software is extremely helpful for those of you who practice the lost art of dictation. Dictating is a great skill to pick up for a variety of reasons — it’s much easier to summarize notes from all-day meetings via dictation, or to make sense of documents as you review them without constantly toggling between screens to be sure you’ve gotten the numbers and quotations exactly correct.

Readers, share your tech must-haves for the office!

Button-down blouses can be great — if they fit you and don’t gape in the bust.  Some companies specialize in creating non-gaping versions for larger-busted women (e.g., Carissa Rose, Rebecca & Drew) but sometimes you just want a DIY fix for a shirt you’ve already got.  Today’s guest poster Kathryn Rubino — one of my personal friends — is a plus-sized fashionable overachieving chick who has some crafty suggestions for fixing the problem. (She also posted a few weeks ago about how to get a great-fitting blazer.) – Kat

We’ve all been there. You’re getting ready for that big interview/meeting/presentation and as you look yourself dead-on in the mirror you are the image of professionalism. As you reach for the straightener to put the finishing touch on your perfectly coiffed hair there it is. It’s your bra. Peeking out from that infuriating gap in your button-down shirt. It almost seems like it is mocking you, “maybe you aren’t as put together as you think you are.” It is maddening. So, how do you deal with this problem? I’ve tried all the work-arounds. The camisole under an unbuttoned button-down. A wrap-style dress shirt. A button-down that is deliberately ruched at the bust. And these are all pretty good solutions, but sometimes I yearn for the simplicity of the classic button down. So this plus size writer test drove three potential solutions to the problem. Obviously, your mileage may vary, but here’s how they worked for me.  (Pictured: Mind the Gap, originally uploaded to Flickr by toastbrot81.)

1. Sewing. This seemed like the most professional option. It was easy enough to find matching thread in a travel sewing kit I had from my last stay at a fancy-pants hotel. Okay, it was a white shirt so that wasn’t too difficult a task, but Amazon has some options that seem pretty comprehensive at under $10. I found it pretty straight forward to lightly tack the gap closed with a small x-shaped stitch, though more time consuming than other options. I found I didn’t have to worry about it too much throughout the day and I felt super strong ripping out the stitches with my bare hands at the end of the day.

2. Taping. This seemed like the easiest option. Just use Hollywood Fashion Tape (or other pre-cut double-sided tape) to lock down the gap. And it was easy! I just worried over the tape peeling away throughout the day. While I never had any major mishaps I did have to subtly press down on the gap to re-stick my shirt together several times throughout the day. I would probably continue to use this for finer fabrics I worry about putting holes in, but it would not be my first choice for cotton shirts. One tip that I haven’t tried, but I received from a few friends in the costume industry is toupee tape. It may sound silly but I am assured that it holds better and is generally cheaper then the other options.

3. Pinning. This seemed like the most familiar option. It feels like I am forever pinning closed low cut dresses or gaping shirts. And I know it works, I just hate the tell-tale glint of silver at my chest. Then I found these. Black and white safety pins. (Jo-Ann’s actually caries them in a variety of colors; so does Amazon.) For me, this is the perfect combination of lazy and effective. I didn’t worry over the gap throughout the day, and I loved that I could re-use the pins. But if you can’t location these little gems, or your gap emergency happens before the two day shipping arrives I still prefer the pinning option. Usually button-downs will have an extra fold down of fabric along the button line and you can use this underside of material to keep your shirt closed without a pin showing through. I also prefer smaller pins, and I attach them upside down (so that the closure points toward my feet) as that helps to disguise the usage of the pin.

Readers, do you consider gaping blouses one of your big problems?  What has your solution been?

(L-4)

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