Laura Stack, MBA, CSP, is a personal productivity expert, author, and professional speaker who helps busy workers Leave the Office Earlier® with Maximum Results in Minimum Time®. She is the president of The Productivity Pro®, Inc., a time management training firm specializing in productivity improvement in high-stress organizations.  Since 1992, Laura has presented keynotes and seminars on improving output, lowering stress, and saving time in today's workplaces.  She is one of a handful of professional speakers whose business focuses solely on time management and productivity topics.  She is a high-energy, high-content speaker, who educates, entertains, and motivates professionals to improve workplace productivity.

Laura is the author or co-author of five books, including The Exhaustion Cure (Broadway Books, 2008), Find More Time (Broadway Books, 2006), two of the popular Chicken Soup for the Soul books, and the bestselling Leave the Office Earlier (Broadway Books, 2004), which was hailed as "the best of the bunch" by the New York Times and listed on the June 2004 Book Sense Business & Economics Bestseller list.  Leave the Office Earlier has been published in seven countries and in five foreign languages, including Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Taiwanese, and Italian.  Laura's popular monthly electronic newsletter has subscribers in 38 countries.  She is a Certified Specialist in Microsoft® Office Outlook. 

Widely regarded as one of the leading experts in the field of employee productivity and workplace issues, she has been featured nationally on the CBS Early Show, CNN, NPR, Bloomberg, NBC TV, WB News, the New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, the WashingtonPost.com, the Chicago Tribune, O Magazine, SELF, Me, Working Mother magazine, Entrepreneur magazine, Readers Digest, Woman's Day, and Parents magazine.  Laura has been a spokesperson for Microsoft, 3M, and Day-Timers, and she is the creator of The Productivity Pro® line of Day-Timer® planning system.  Her client list includes top Fortune 500 companies, including Microsoft, IBM, GM, Coors, the Denver Broncos, Lockheed Martin, Lucent Technologies, Wells Fargo, Mobil, Time Warner, and VISA, plus a multitude of associations and governmental agencies.

Laura holds an MBA in Organizational Management (University of Colorado, 1991), integrating the importance of productivity in business with employee retention and satisfaction.  She is on the Board of Directors of the National Speakers Association (NSA) and is the recipient of the Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation, NSA's highest earned designation.

Laura lives with her husband and three children in Denver, Colorado.

Laura Stack keynotes
Presentation length: 45 minutes to 1 hour and 15 minutes

Balancing Work and Family
Keep Your Job, Your Family, and Your Sanity

Successful people don't trade personal satisfaction for professional achievement. They know high performance depends on both. You work hard all day at work and then go home-to the second shift-the one you don't get paid for. To avoid the peaks and valleys of productivity created by balancing the urgent demands of work and personal life, professionals must be able to balance both without sacrificing either. When you discover the right mix of time and accomplishment in both arenas, you'll rediscover vision, vitality, and meaning in your life!

COURSE OBJECTIVES

• Establish your governing purpose and values
• Describe a personal vision for the right mix of work and Life
• Design your "ideal" life and allocate time according to your values
• Set appropriate boundaries and stick to your guns, saying "no" creatively
• Stop thinking about work and enjoy your personal time
• Refuse to do everything yourself and ask for help when you need it
• Create rituals with your family to reconnect during stressful times
• Determining appropriate technology limits when you're with your family or on personal time
• Distinguish between "negotiable" and "non-negotiable" activities
• Develop strategies to manage and create discretionary time
• Learn shortcuts, systems, and routines that get personal chores done more quickly
• Complete shopping, errands, cleaning, and household projects more efficiently

Focusing on Your Work
Maintain Your Concentration in an Environment of Distractions

The most effective time management system in the world won't do a thing to improve your productivity if you can't focus on one thing. For many of us, the problem isn't a lack of willpower; it's the ability to refuse distractions caused by other people, the environment, and your mind. With noise, interruptions, people, and instant messages, so many things compete for our attention that it's often very difficult to concentrate. This seminar will improve your ability stay on target and focus on the task at hand.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

• Configure your office for maximum productivity and minimum distractions
• Protect yourself from your technology, outside environment, and co-worker "drop-ins"
• Implement the behaviors that create a "Focus Zone" whenever you need it
• Create "concentration blocks" in your daily schedule
• Learn the mechanics of making intangible thoughts tangible
• Design an effective capture system to log random thoughts in the proper location
• Improve your memory and recall skills
• Avoid multi-tasking and attempting to do too many things at once
• Understand the neurology of the brain when focusing and the effects of distraction
• Recognize signs of brain overload and get your mind focused again
• Get absorbed in a task and achieve a state of "flow"
• Concentrate on a task that bores you or doesn't really interest you

Building Sped and Agility
Be More Efficient and Get More Done in Less Time

Do you ever feel like you're doing things the hard way? That it takes you twice as long as it should to complete a task? If you ever say to yourself, "There HAS to be a better way to do this," then this class is for you. Learn the skills of efficiency, and you'll spend less time working and will get things done more  quickly with less effort.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

• Simplify tasks by eliminating steps in a procedure
• Use templates to respond to frequently-asked questions
• Buy the software that will speed up common tasks
• Manage your availability with calendar scheduling techniques
• Improve the processes and procedures within your job
• Use checklists and reminders to relieve your brain
• Automate any manual processes
• Take shortcuts for many repeating tasks
• Read quickly and maintain concentration without rereading
• Spend down time productively while waiting or driving
• Batch tasks requiring similar actions
• Double up or combine activities

Staying on Top of the Inbox
Control, Organize, and Communicate Efficiently with Email

If you keep more than a screen shot of email in your in-box, you need this program! Email has become the productivity bane of modern corporate employees, the ball-and-chain that keeps them stuck at their desks for hours every day. They wade around, desperately trying to sort, respond to, and organize messages. Pending items fall through the cracks. Email for long-term projects sit in the inbox and collect dust. Employees hit "Reply to All" to 17 people and create hundreds of "Me too!" responses that add nothing to the conversation and waste everyone's time. ENOUGH! Take this course and get and stay on top of your email, once and for all.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

• Determine if email is the appropriate medium to communicate your message
• Compose clear, concise, correct, and conversational messages to convey the desired tone
• Reduce obsessive-compulsive email disorder and control your actions
• Avoid time-wasting email behaviors that slow down the recipients of your email and generate excessive volume
• Discuss today's commonly accepted courtesies and protocol for sending and responding to email
• Agree on guidelines that your team or organization will follow
• Discover simple tricks to reduce information overload and decrease volume by 50%
• Use email to set reminders, track delegation, and organize "pending" messages
• Increase your processing speed and get through 100 messages in record time
• Discover inbox tricks to increase efficiency, such as coloring, sorting, and running rules
• Witness amazing, little-known Microsoft Outlook tricks and tips that will save you countless hours!
• Develop a systematic method to keep the inbox empty and stay in control

Maintaining Energy During the Day
Beat the Exhaustion and Be More Productive

How much energy and vitality do you have throughout the day to accomplish the things you want to do? It's hard to be productive when you just want to put your head down on your desk and take a nap. You have the potential to dramatically impact your productivity by paying closer attention to your energy  behaviors. You'll learn the factors that contribute to low energy (the "energy bandits") and how to reduce their effects. Then you'll build up and renew sources of positive force (with "energy boosters"). This seminar will guide you in making the changes necessary to give you vitality and productivity every day!

COURSE OBJECTIVES

• Discover proper sleep behaviors and what you're doing to sabotage a good night's sleep
• Sneak in your weekly exercise requirement through simply daily activity changes
• Learn what foods, substances, and vices crash your blood sugar levels and stock metabolism-boosting snacks instead
• Experience consistent levels of energy throughout the day and avoid the roller-coaster effect
• Monitor and adjust the noise level in your office, so it's conducive to productivity
• Feel energized by the lighting, temperature, color, and smells surrounding you
• Ensure that your workspace is comfortable and ergonomically correct
• Find out if you are a workaholic and addicted to your job
• Learn how humor and laughter increase energy levels
• Discover your energy prime times and what tasks are better done at different times of the day
• Keep the clutter in your life at bay and maintain organized surroundings
• Experience the effects of "stinking thinking," such as worry and anger, on your attitude and energy levels

Looking at Time through the Lens of Leadership
Get More Work from Fewer People...Without Making Them Hate You or Quit

If a mountain of deadlines and a staff that surfs the Internet for pleasure is keeping you awake at night, bring Laura in for guidance. Good leaders understand that time management is not about squeezing more into the day; it's about you and your people spending time productively toward the accomplishment

of organizational goals. Managing the clock isn't the answer-teaching employees to manage themselves is. This innovative program discusses three key time management principles for leaders: (1) avoiding organizational "speed bumps," (2) eliminating activities that waste people's time, and (3) modeling effective time management behavior.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

• Use your administrative assistant more effectively
• Improve process efficiencies between team members and other departments
• Maintain an "open door" policy while guarding against "drop in" visitors
• Delegate appropriately and follow-up on time
• Use Outlook to delegate and track assigned tasks
• Craft communication protocols governing your team's use of technology
• Avoid "speed bumps" in employees' paths and help them speed up
• Eliminate departmental activities that waste time
• Model effective productive behavior through personal time management and organization
• Help your people move through change more quickly
• Keep people from burning out and maintain proper balance
• Remove process inefficiencies such as mistake correction and undefined roles

Travels from: Denver

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