My work can often involve people asking me how I get things done and remain productive.
A recent discussion with someone along these lines brought home to me how some very easy to implement steps (shortcuts if you will) can really make a big difference to our days.
To boost your productivity quickly, try giving these tips a run this week:
1) Turn email alerts off (forevermore)!
- Break ranks and be free of this modern curse to obsessively check emails as soon as they land in your in box
2) Batch email time to 1-3 times a day (otherwise stay out of your inbox)
- Add something to your sign off if required to let people know you only check mail at set times but otherwise do not ask for permission on this. You are not paid to spend your day in your inbox!
- If it’s urgent they can still call
3) Do not check email first thing
- it will just distract you from the important work and things you want to get done
Time Management (is dead!)
4) You cannot manage time, the phrase Time Management is abused and misleading
5) You can however manage tasks and how you use your time
Tasks & Prioritising
6) Prioritise important tasks (your big rocks)
- Aim for 1 to 3 big tasks a day (no more)
- One (or all) of these can be related to a personal goal
- Block out time in your diary for these tasks (treat them as commitments to be kept)
7) Start your day working off on one of your big tasks
8) Batch everything else (emails, calls etc)
- Allot certain times for routine activity as much as possible
How to Focus & Dealing with Interruptions
9) Get Away from Your Desk
- At work, if it helps, seek out ways to be away from your desk to get the important work done without distraction.
10) Keep Your Head Down
- Alternatively, come up with tactics that work for you (just keeping your head down working, while looking a little serious is sometimes enough to make people think twice about interrupting you)
11) Turn your email alerts off
- Yes, we covered this already but I cannot stress this enough, turn off alerts and simplify your email
12) Turn your phone to silent
- Sacrilege I know but we did survive quite happily for many, many years without having to check our smartphones every 5 minutes
- Technology is there to serve you, not the other way around
Follow these tips and your next problem will be what fun activities to fill your new found spare time with!
Frictionless Email
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What Is It About?
Frictionless Email shares ways to simplify email so it serves us.
- So we run our day around it not the other way around.
- So email reduces our work stress not adds to it.
- So it aids our productivity not just adds to what we have to do.
Frictionless Email is concentrated on helping you get more out of email and having a healthier relationship with your inbox (and indeed escaping your inbox).
Learn tactics to get you to inbox zero and reduce email stress.
Make email simple and then get on with the rest of your life.