Gone are those days when it used to take time to know about things taking place on the other end of the world to reach you. The world we are a part of is inevitably becoming smaller and smaller. It can all be attributed to mobile phones, computers, and social media. You must be thinking that it is good that the world is literally becoming more accessible. Who would not want to know the volatility of your industry as soonest possible or be available to their loved ones right when they want it. At the same time, we all are aware that technology can be super addictive, especially when it comes to smartphones and personal computers.
If the truth is to be put in a single sentence, the use of technology all the time has a huge setback. It prevents you from working towards your set goals, be more productive, and learn what you thought you would. On the other hand, one can not ignore that it holds tremendous potential to improve your productivity dramatically. There exist some technological tools that it’d be a big mistake to ignore altogether.
In the following paragraph, we discuss few tech-based tools that can help you take your productivity game a level above. If you use what technology offers, you will certainly be amazed to know you can increase your output and overall efficiency.
Choosing the right tools
Suppose you go to your smartphone’s application store (AppStore) right now. You will find a separate category of applications under productivity. You will find that most of the “productivity” applications will offer you all the stars and moon. But when it comes actually to turn around things, there are very few applications that are cut to make a change happen.
Albeit, there exist some great tools that hold power to deliver the change you are looking for. The harsh reality is that not every new piece of productivity technology will fit perfectly into your already existing workflow. Therefore you should take your time when picking up the right tool for yourself. Sometimes the most popular tools may not be the best for you, so keep your search on until you find that one tool that works for you.
1. Automate everything that is possible
Are you aware of the 80/20 rule of management? This rule states that most of your outputs/ rewards come from a small number of inputs. It is about being smart, choosing the right input that fetches the maximum output. You need to constantly focus on minimizing the relatively less productive 80 percent of the inputs. Practically, you are not supposed to cut off everything that is not highly rewarding. Some things need to be done regardless of how trivial they are. No one really wants to do 80% of the work that fetches close to no output. But it is often essential to get these things done to keep the stuff in the pipeline moving.
This is where you can leverage automation and systematization to get the trivial things done. There are just so many benefits of automation that it is becoming the future already. It does all the heavy lifting on your part. The more you deploy automation to the monotonous work, the more productive you become. In a way, you designate your responsibilities to a machine that is way less likely to make mistakes than anyone else. Machines can do stuff at a lightning-fast pace and with far more accuracy. Moreover, it can help you save a lot of capital and man force by taking the extra load off your employee’s shoulders.
2. Stay Connected
There is nothing more important than proper communication between team members. It enables you to stay in touch, informed, and entertained. There are multiple online tools in place that can connect you with anyone. You can use messenger technology like Whatsapp, video conferencing tools like Zoom, and other workflow management systems. Use these tools to keep everyone informed with real-time updates. Most importantly, it helps you withhold the three most important pillars of a good corporate culture- Transparency, Openness, and Trust.
Make sure you do not limit the communication to just the serious stuff. It is important to give people the scope to communicate outside work. You can have a WhatsApp group for casual discussion or ‘Water cooler chat’ and even have virtual spaces where people can share memes and jokes. It greatly helps people to unwind themselves and feels that connection to the world.
3. Browse critical information in your free time
Reading the latest news article, checking scores of the sport you follow, and even online shopping can be tempting when working in an office. You should know all of these activities are frowned upon in any workplace. These things steal significant time out of your day and can be called a breach of workplace rules.
Shutting down WiFi or just the internet is not really much of an option since most of us work on cloud-based software and need the internet to function fully—some site blocking software you can install not to access those particular websites when working.
You can also use approaches like the Pomodoro technique that can help you stay focused on your work. You may reward yourself with some browsing in between your highly focused work sessions.
4. Journal
There are just so many reasons and benefits of journaling that one can’t simply highlight all of it in one go. The best part is that great applications with wonderful UX design help you fetch the same benefits (if not more) out of it. The following are some benefits listed:
- It helps you visualize your goals and gain clarity of your real priorities
- Diary acts as a safe house of your ideas
- It helps better articulate your thoughts and streamline plans for future
- It lets you apprehend future obstacles and gives a clearer understanding of your drives and purpose
- A place where you can be honest and not fear any judgments
- Most important of all, it helps you organize your inner convoluted thoughts
The best thing about writing a journal is that you are writing it for no one but yourself. You don’t have to work to make it entertaining or less boring perse. You don’t even have to care about grammar. Just take 10 minutes out at the end of each day and scribble your thoughts, accomplishments, and ideas.
5. Use smart calendar
To do deep, focused work, you can’t have your calendar look like sliced cheese. It is essential to protect your own rights if you are already in the middle of something serious. The following are some simple automation hacks to save your precious time.
- Add a block on your calendar: There is absolutely no way that you can get through a week without doing the busy work. Set aside one hour of your time based on your convenience. Please make sure you are realistic while you schedule it. You can also set aside half a day of every week for admin-related works.
- Take help of desktop application: You can use apps like Calendly to set aside time blocks when you are available for a quick meeting. This way, people will know when not to disturb you with trivial things.
Technology can be seriously used to revolutionize a lot of manual using automation. You prevent yourself from all the distractions that can take control of your own day.
6. Stay focused
It is easier to get distracted and lose focus when you are working for yourself. You tend to procrastinate more and consequently become much less productive. You may put in your best efforts to keep yourselves as organized as possible, thinking that it will help us focus better. But in today’s date and time, digital distraction is another reason we feel over-run all the time. You, more often than not, will yourself jumping from one task to another without sticking to any of it for long enough to get the work done.
There are multiple tools available these days that can help you focus better and for long hours. One such tool is Focus Timer. The focus timer is based on the famous Pomodoro Technique. You make a promise to yourself to buckle down and work for twenty-five minutes straight and take a brief break of five minutes after your session. Make sure you have set a task ahead of time, start the sessions of twenty-five minutes each, followed by a break. Repeat these sessions four to five times and then take a bigger break.
7. Upskill with MOOCs
In the past, there has been a continuous rise in the platforms of online teaching. There are copious resource sites that have their own bank of knowledge. In the last 3- 5 years, nearly 25 Mn people worldwide enrolled in Massive Open Online Courses. There are courses for skill up-gradation and general/specialized learning from all the areas. Multiple websites offer courses online like EdX, Courser, Udemy, etc. These courses are absolutely free of cost and are offered by the best of the teachers in the world.
It is not just merely about academics, and you can learn any skill of your choice. You may pick up/ acquire a brand new skill altogether, like learning chess or fundamentals of stand-up comedy. Even you can upgrade your existing skills like you can do an advanced course on game theory or maybe cloud computing. MOOCs have revolutionized the way learning was perceived for ages. It has made higher education a public good. Now you do not have to quit your job or go on a sabbatical to work on yourself. You can pick up a self-paced course that suits you the best and complete it at your convenience.
8. Use Online Scheduler
“Work will automatically expand to fill the time that is available for its completion.” This one thing is a big downside of solely focusing on working and not getting things off your to-do list. This happens when you do not schedule things prior. You must focus and pay attention to finishing the projects you have on your plate. Give yourself a strict timeline to follow and get done with the work in hand. It is also important to develop and cultivate the desire to strike off things from your to-do list. The following are benefits of online scheduling that can help you develop the habit of scheduling.
8.1 Can be accessed from multiple devices
Most of us juggle our lives between work, home, family, and many other things. We are obligated to carry our calendar everywhere all the time. Online calendars allow you to access your schedule from anywhere, anytime. You can access your common id-password on any mobile device or laptop.
8.2 Schedule meetings and appointments in real-time
One big advantage of an online scheduler is that you can schedule your appointments and meetings almost real-time. If you are in a meeting and want to schedule the subsequent sessions, you can do it right at the moment via your phone or laptop. It eliminates the need for you to go back and forth to get everyone to agree to a particular time.
8.3 Set up Reminders
You can also set up reminders on your mobile phone so that you do not forget or miss an important meeting. This is just an additional advantage of an online scheduler. Obviously, a paper-based calendar can not have the reminder feature. You can also use various variations in the calendar reminder itself. You can set the urgency of the message and add the required label to the same.
8.4 Create recurring events
There are sprint meetings and daily/weekly huddles scheduled for a set period of time. You do not have to go on scheduling the meeting time and again. You can make it a recurring event. Select a particular time and the period for how long do you want the meeting to go.
