Productivity Tips – Dr. Melissa’s Blog
10 Tips for Managing your Financial Files
You have heard the expression, “time is money.” For many people, especially those who bill or are paid by the hour, this truism feels especially relevant. But what about your information? Do you view your electronic or paper files as an important part of your...
3 Life Lessons that have made my career great…and continue to do so.
In this invited speech to the Hostess City Toastmasters, Dr. Melissa Gratias reflects on what it means to be "mid-career" and the advice she gave to an unwitting college student one day. Don’t want to watch the video? A transcript follows. ...
Am I Procrastinating or Just Taking a Break?
I’m jumping right into this topic. If you want more background information on procrastination, read this. Onward… With procrastination, the enemy is not the activity. It’s the intent. I tell my clients that the enemy is not Candy Crush. The enemy...
Mind the Gap in 2020
A change in decade has psychological significance. Some of us rang in a new millennium, worked thorough the financial turmoil of “the aughts”, recovered our wits and our money during the teens, and are currently preparing for the 20s. I wonder if they’ll be roaring...
Managing Holiday Tasks with Less Stress
Both of my go-to radio stations start playing Christmas music in early November. While there must be a large subset of the US population for whom this is a good thing, I am not in that group. I absolutely love the holidays, but the volume of tasks that get...
How to Handle Professional Betrayal
Have you ever felt betrayed by someone at work? Maybe a colleague took credit for your efforts. Perhaps your boss promised something and didn’t deliver. The injustice is frustrating, demotivating, and can devastate your productivity. One of the hardest lessons...
Prioritizing Tasks: What Comes First?
If you have more tasks to do than time to do them in, you are prioritizing – intentionally or unintentionally. Unintentional methods of prioritization include: Recency Effect. What arrived last gets done first. This is pretty much how an email inbox works....
The Law of the Hammer
Recently, I have witnessed what I can best describe as overuse injuries – in a cognitive/psychological sense. One person who is very generous was on the verge of burnout. She kept giving and prioritizing other people to the point that she had no time to take...
Promoting Your Expertise and Building a Platform
I am learning a new business skill currently: how to promote a book. It is a time-consuming and often uncomfortable thing to do. I feel like I am pushing a boulder up hill. But tenacity is one of my strengths, and I am choosing to persevere. Recently, I...
I Don’t Think a Shorter Work Week is the Answer
I have great relationships with several journalists. They reach out to me for quotes and my thoughts on the productivity-related pieces they are writing. And, I get the benefit of their keen insights into what current readers want to read. Recently, a...