Productivity Cafe: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle & Reinvent to Use Your Resources Optimally

There is a 4^th R in the big movements of today – Reinvent! Key words apply to your mindset for using resources well – Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. Today we'll add Reinvent giving us:

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle & Reinvent

We often think of those with regard to natural resources. Those words apply to your mindset for being effective with career resources like time and ideas as well. Let's run through Sarah's week for examples of how being mindful of the 4Rs can apply to you.

Sarah was feeling overburdened by the number of commitments she had made in and out of work. In a purposeful examination of her schedule she decided to reduce the number of commitments by leaving half of them. She started with her calendar and viewing the next 3 months of obligations. Then, she literally struck the ones that did not significantly impact her family and professional success. After the session she called those involved with those meetings and events and tactfully explained that she's modifying her schedule to improve her quality of life and would no longer be able to be at the engagement. Sarah suggested someone who would take her place (having arranged that with the individual beforehand) or

who the contact might recruit to serve in her place. Sarah reduced the drain of over commitment and felt a huge weight lift off her mind.

Sarah has a report that is due to her boss at the end of every week. It requires the same categories of information such as: Milestones Met This Week, Status of Schedule, Information required, Problems Encountered This Week, Manager Action Requested, and Objectives for Next Week. Rather than type the questions, her name, the date of the report Sarah set up a blank template that she opens and completes quickly. The date she opens the report is automatically put in the report so she only needs to insert the information for the week. She reuses a template to automate things needed regularly.

Sarah recycled ideas from a brain storming session to propose a new system for inventory management. During the brain storming session there were more ideas than could be implemented at the time. So, once the first levels of ideas were underway she took the list out and recycled the next layer of good ideas. This recycling yielded viable alternatives and reduced the time she and other spent reworking something that was already worked.

In probably the most impactful action Sarah took she reinvented how meetings were held in her department. Meetings that were aimless, so long people were fixated on the clock, and bore little fruit were reinvented to those that had an agenda, were brief and engaging, and led to many successful initiatives. People resisted at first but rose to the occasion when they realized they could offer input that would be heard and acted on if possible. Meetings became a time of stimulation and were anticipated as places of opportunity.

As you move through your week see if there are ways for your to reduce, reuse, recycle, and reinvent portions of your roles & responsibilities… you'll be lighter and more effective when you look at things through the 4Rs of using resources.