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Author shares productivity tips with alumni in Boston

Alumni | May 06, 2015 |
Author Robert Pozen speaks to a group of Fordham alumni in Boston.

Author Robert Pozen speaks to a group of Fordham alumni in Boston.

Nearly everyone in every business is concerned with boosting productivity without expanding what are already long days at the office.

But what if you could increase your results and reduce your hours?

Robert C. Pozen, a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, believes he has found a way, and last week he let a group of Fordham University alumni in on his strategy.

The Boston-area chapter of the Fordham Wall Street Council hosted Pozen, the author of Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours, on April 28 at the Boston College Club.

Pozen’s presentation focused on setting goals, overcoming perfectionism, preparing your day the night before and maintaining family time. He urged the audience to pursue priorities, get quickly to the final product and communicate often with superiors.

Among his “don’ts:”

  • Don’t spend time on “junk” emails
  • Don’t do “A+” work for “B” goals
  • Don’t have long meetings
  • Don’t stay late regularly

Pozen’s talk resonated with 2000 Fordham graduate John Pugh, a former basketball player who is now in real estate development in Boston.

Pozen, Pugh said, is “the kind of guy who can speak about things that could be very academic and boring but brings them to live with a lot of real-life examples. That was the biggest piece that I enjoyed.”

Pugh said he didn’t know what to expect when he went. He had not heard of Pozen’s book before, but he came away impressed.

“I was thinking about looking at his book when I first saw the invite, and after hearing the presentation … I ended up reading a fair amount of it over the weekend,” Pugh said.

In addition, Pugh was able to connect with other Fordham alumni at the event. He said he would like to go to other Fordham events in the future.

“I thought it was a great experience,” he said.

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