07 Aug 7 Ways to Increase your Productivity in a Day
Whether you work in a large corporate office, a small business, or work from home everyone can agree that productivity is an issue. Staying productive can be a challenge. Social media is always knocking at your computer. Your phone is beeping and buzzing. Technology is prevalent in our daily activities and is a useful tool for business. What can you do as an employee to stay focused and productive while utilizing social media and technology?
1. Make a Schedule
Sounds simple right? This is a little boring but a tried and true technique. Keep a calendar of all appointments. You can utilize your Outlook Calendar or Google Calendars. Start every day by reviewing your calendar and scheduling your day. If you have a daily staff meeting put it on the schedule. Yes, you may know in your mind that every day at 8 am there is a staff meeting but physically record it on your calendar. You will see your schedule develop in front of you. In fact, schedule your breaks as well. Taking a break away from your work is just as important as scheduling meetings, projects, and conference calls. Studies have shown that you are less productive when you eat at your desk rather than if you take a lunch break. Take a moment to walk outside and get fresh air. If you work from home, change your scenery and move into another room. Make a schedule every day. Review your schedule every morning. Make sure you take breaks.
2. Delegate Tasks
Once you create your schedule you may feel overwhelmed. These tasks must be completed by their deadlines yet you have no idea how it can happen. Everyone needs help at one point. In order to get help from others you must first trust your colleagues. Let them know the deadlines and give them all the resources needed to complete the task. Check in with your colleagues regularly to be sure everything is on point. With their help you can tackle larger projects more efficiently.
3. Schedule a Social Media and Technology “Blackout”
When handling your workload determine when it is appropriate to engage in social media, and when it is not. If you are a marketing professional or you are in charge of promoting a company event, carve out a chunk of time where your only task is social media networking. After that time is exhausted, turn everything off. No Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest- nothing. In the U.S. alone over 12.2 billion hours are being spent browsing on social media every day. Keep your schedule in mind. You only have 8 hours in a day to complete your tasks. Often employees leave the office unsatisfied with what they have accomplished. One reason is because they were distracted by social media. Your goal- turn it off, keep it off, unless you are using it as a business tool.
4. Weed out Other Distractions
Social media can definitely be a time waster and a distraction. So can television, radio, podcasts, and even other employees. Working in a office environment can make it difficult to weed out other employees. The best way to combat this is politely asking anyone disturbing you if you can meet up during one of your breaks. It’s actually beneficial for both of you. As a friend, you want to give your entire attention to your friend. It’s not polite to split your thought process between a work project and your work colleague. Ask them to lunch or coffee and take a break together. Working from home can bring a different set of distractions. Televisions, radios, and lack of supervision all create a distraction. Here is the secret. Follow your schedule as in tip #1. Move yourself into a quite room and only leave that room for breaks. In your home office no television, no radio, and follow the social networking rules as in tip # 3. Handle personal tasks outside of business hours. Keep everything in that room related to business only. It will make it easier to separate your personal tasks from your business tasks.
5. Speaking of Distractions-Stop Watching so much TV!
Productivity extends outside of the workplace. It’s very easy to come home from work and tune in. It’s important to wind down but it is important to recognize when there is too much. Watching too much TV takes away from your personal time. It can become a domino effect. If you watch TV during your personal time, you waste a lot of non-business hours. When will you complete your personal errands? During business hours? Be sure to schedule personal errands outside of your business schedule and do not waste your personal time. You need the down time in order to be focused on your business goals.
6. Organize your Office
Everyone has their own version of organized. The piles of paper on your desk can be a huge barrier to your productivity. Set up a system and get rid of junk. In fact, going paperless can save you a lot of time. Cloud hosted services such as Box and Dropbox allow you to store your documents on the cloud in a manner that is easily searchable. Scan your paper and create a paperless filing system. It’s much easier to search for a document on Box using the search feature than it would be to rummage through an antiquated paper file. Quickly accessing important documents can save a lot of time and using a cloud solution makes it easy to share documents and collaborate with colleagues.
7. Outsource as Much as Possible
This is an excellent tip for your professional and personal life. If you are a small business owner outsourcing certain aspects of the business makes sense. You do not have the manpower or the capability to run your business successfully and account for everything going on. Outsourcing will save you time and money. Hiring a full time Accounting Manager not only will cost the business a salary, but you will have to pay their payroll taxes and other employment expenses as well. Hiring a firm will only cost their fee and you will have the expertise you need for the business to be successful. The same goes for a Marketing Manager. Outsource this task to an expert firm and your social media presence will increase rapidly. In your personal life think of mundane jobs you either have little time to accomplish or little interest. Hiring a gardener, housekeeper, or someone to run errands and do your grocery shopping will give you more personal time to handle pressing needs. Most family’s have two adults that both work which makes household chores difficult to complete. You can even use a website such as Task Rabbit to outsource errands and grocery shopping.
Staying productive is not always easy. Stick to these simple tips and you are sure to be on your way to a higher level of productivity.
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