Recap: September Membership Meeting

During our regular membership meeting on September 12, members enjoyed the break in their afternoon to socialize and enjoy a casual lunch at Gibsons Bar & Steakhouse. When everyone had their fill, we welcomed tech guru Beth Ziesenis of Your Nerdy Best Friend for a fast-paced and engaging presentation on AI for Productivity.

Backed by data from tech company Filtered, Beth touched on several of the 100 most useful productivity tips, along with the resources and apps to help become more productive using the various methods. These included:

• Timeboxing
• Meeting management
• Email management
• Distraction management
• Automating tasks

Ziesenis expanded on her productivity hacks for professionals with a free 2-hour workshop on September 13. Hank Artlip, SMACNA Greater Chicago President, attended and found the session valuable — particularly the more in-depth look at timeboxing.

“Tony does a great job of bringing in the right kind of classes and training for members, and Beth’s presentation taught us some useful time management skills,” Artlip said. “With timeboxing, you set aside chunks of time throughout your day to focus on a specific task at hand — and only that task,” Artlip said. “You’re not checking your emails, mindlessly scrolling or doing anything that stops what you were doing productively, and it’s a concept of controlling your world that’s used by very successful people in other industries.”

Indeed, the practice of timeboxing gives users a better visual of their daily workflow, not to mention a comprehensive record of what’s been done throughout the week. If you’ve heard of Parkinson’s Law, which states that work expands to fill the time available, you’ll likely notice a measurable difference in productivity and efficiency with the implementation of timeboxing.

Some easy ways to get started with this method is to make use of your organization’s shared calendar functionality, try GetClockwise.com or start a free 2-week trial of RescueTime.com.

Don’t miss out on our next membership meeting, scheduled for November 14. See you then!