At a recent gathering of the CEO Club of Baltimore, guest speaker Leslie Shreve shared with the audience that she might have an advantage over others in squeezing the most out of every day.
“I was born organized,” she says. “I remember that when I was about eight years old, bedtime meant getting dressed in the clothes I would wear to school the next day in order to save time in the morning.”
She credits her well-organized and highly productive parents for her plan-ahead approach. While Shreve says she’s broken the habit of dressing up the night before for the next day’s activities – and her well-pressed executive suit seemed to confirm that – Shreve has parlayed her predilection for preparedness by founding a company called Productive Day. For the last eight years, she’s been helping CEOs and other executives nationwide to squeeze the most out of their day, and have more time for a better-balanced life.
“Most of the ‘secrets’ to maximizing the use of time at work are pretty simple and common-sense,” she said. “I’ve found that using Microsoft Outlook is an invaluable tool for beginners as well as even the most dedicated time-savers among my clients.”
As the President and CEO of Productive Day, Leslie is finding time now to write a book about all the secrets she teaches clients.
“Keeping all your appointments and your ‘to-do’ lists in one place is key,” she says. “Reading emails once and taking action immediately helps too. And will you ever really go back and read those hundreds of emails in your inbox? Not likely. For some CEOs, giving up Post-it notes as their main way of remembering goes out the window, too.”
Shreve asked audience members if any of them felt that they were working at optimal efficiency. Bert Lebhar, CEO of Atlantic Remodeling Corporation, raised his hand high. Turns out that Shreve had worked with Bert’s company to get them organized. Now the company’s senior staff is reading emails just once, taking action immediately, and accomplishing more than ever. Lebhar says it’s also given him the ability to take more time off, as well as expand the company.
The important thing for executives to remember before they hire Shreve, she says, is that they really have to be committed to changing their daily routines and habits, including how they approach tasks and process information. She doesn’t actually go in and clean up paperwork.
“I teach executives how to manage tasks, time, paperwork and e-mails in order to get more clarity and control in their workday,” she says. “Once they’ve tried my system, doing things the old way just doesn’t make sense anymore.”
For some executives, that’s too hard a transition to make. It doesn’t happen often, but occasionally Shreve will work with – and eventually have to part ways with – clients who aren’t really committed to changing their ways.
Think you’re ready to clean up your act? Just thinking about getting more out of each day isn’t enough. Shreve asks each potential client how important it is to make that change. To spend less time at the office and maybe more time working on the things that need attention. Or perhaps just to be able to spend more time at home.
“Ya gotta wanna,” she says.
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