Staying Productive at Work



Yesterday, Geekwire.com posted an article on 7 tips to make yourself more efficient right now. I thought it was great. As a person who needs to motivate myself to get everything on my plate done, taking new tips and ideas to add to my personal style is always helpful. Here are my favorites:

Do your most important 1-2 tasks/projects FIRST every day (before email and voicemail) - if you know there is a deadline, wait to open up that email (unless you know there's an email about the project and then only open that email). You'll lose time in responding to requests and continue to push back more important jobs. I make hand written lists each day to make sure I'm prioritizing.

Set a morning “Daily Do” reminder - similar to my "Must Do" list, a Daily Do list is a great reminder for things that need to get done. I like Geekwire's example:
*Check Facebook for birthdays, and wish people a happy birthday first-thing
*Check Klout for notifications, and give a handful of people I know “+K” for their expertise
*Check my online spam filter (via Postini) for anything important I may have missed yesterday
*Check LinkedIn and Gist for other important updates across my network, and comment back as necessary
*Scan yesterday’s schedule, and send thank you notes (email or hand-written) as necessary
*Ensure all to-do’s captured yesterday have been filed and prioritized (either today or for later)
*Confirm my priorities and to-do list for today, and ensure I have every resource necessary to get them done
*Confirm today’s meetings (including sending a confirmation email if necessary)
*Prepare for today’s meetings (including any documents I’ll need there, any homework I needed to complete, etc.)

Use the two-minute rule - from their article, "Each time a new email arrives in your inbox, ask yourself: “Can I respond to this in two minutes or less?” If so, then respond right away! Don’t click or open another message just to read it. Be diligent and respond to the message you have open quickly before moving on". Too true!

And finally - Carry idea capture tools with you at all times. As soon as I get my new phone, I am downloading this app from Dial2Do. If you think of an idea while driving or away from your computer (or handy dandy notebook), you can leave a message to yourself that sends an email directly to your account, thus not forgetting this great idea! We do so much, how easy is it to forget something cool you randomly thought up?

Another great article to check out is from askmen.com's 11 Ways to be More Productive at Work. From planning phone calls and leaving at a specific time to streamlining recurring tasks, this one can definitely help you prioritize your tasks.

~Kendal