6 Resources to Help Boost Productivity this Fall

From books to podcasts to charts, Douglas has you covered for resources that will make your autumn the most productive season yet.

Resources to Help Boost Productivity douglas magazine Vancouver Island News

Pay Attention to Podcasts

Podcasts are a great way to absorb information on those boring commutes, or when you’re working out, or any time you can put the earbuds in.

Three of our favourite entrepreneurial podcasts are:

HBR Ideacast: From the always insightful Harvard Business Review, this podcast features the leading thinkers in business and management.

NPR How I Built This: Host Guy Raz weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists — and the movements they built.

CBC Under the Influence: Host and ad man Terry O’Reilly gives listeners a rare backstage pass into the hallways, boardrooms and recording studios of the ad industry.

Stop Doing That Sh*t

Do you ever feel like you get stuck in destructive cycles that hold you back? Stop Doing That Sh*t (HarperCollins) by Gary John Bishop is a great back-to-work wake-up call that helps you connect the dots of your “stuff” all the way from your past to the present. You’ll make sense of yourself and set the stage for the kind of profound shift needed to get your life on track. As Bishop says, “The future has arrived. Now what the hell are you going to do about it?”

Energize Your Social Media

Is your social media workflow broken (or non-existent)? Do you know what your social media ROI really is? It’s time to implement a social media content calendar. One of the best and easiest calendar tools is Loomly, which allows you to manage all your social media calendars from your dashboard. You can easily set up approval workflows so you have the final say on content affecting your brand. Plus, you can have seamless automated publishing for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn (and Instagram through a third-party app). By removing the guesswork and getting the data, you’ll know for sure if social media works for your business.

Bring Back the Gantt Chart

Hate your Gantt chart software? You’re not alone, but charts can be very useful for keeping short-term projects on track. Gantt charts have come a long way, according to Mike Vardy of TimeCrafting.com, thanks to the online solution GanttPRO, which can be mastered in
minutes, not days, and is ideal for keeping your team in the loop and sharing progress with clients. When your team is informed, everything runs smoother, and when clients feel informed, they
are happier clients.

Discover Your Team’s Strengths

“It might sound counterproductive, but it’s critical to slow down to make sure you’re going in the right direction, especially when it comes to your staff,” says Mike Vardy of TimeCrafting.com. “The biggest thing people can do … is to really look at how you can empathize with your team … Figure out what their work habits and styles are like and do a StrengthsFinder test to leverage your team better and create a positive team environment.” Vardy recommends the StrengthsFinder 2.0 book from Gallup and author Tom Rath, and Applied Empathy: The New Language of Leadership by Michael Ventura.

Reboot your Leadership

Why not start this fall with a fresh approach to leadership? In his new book Reboot: Leadership and the Art of Growing Up, Jerry Colonna helps leaders make peace with those psychological habits and behavioural patterns that have helped them succeed but are detrimental to their relationships and ultimate well-being. Reboot explores how a journey of radical self-inquiry can help you to reset your life by sorting through the emotional baggage that is holding you back from becoming a compassionate, bold and more effective leader.

This article is from the August/September 2019 issue of Douglas.