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Seven Easy Tips To Boost Productivity March 18, 2015 (0 comments)
Redmond, WA—Matt Heinz, president and founder of Heinz Marketing, is a nationally recognized author and blogger on the subject of increased productivity and results. In a recent whitepaper titled Secrets to Productivity, Work/Life Balance, and Success, he offers multiple tips for increasing productivity and maintaining balance. Many are remarkably simple to do. Here are seven to try:
1. Get up 30 minutes earlier. It’s not a huge difference in time but it makes a huge difference in your day.
2. Do your one or two most important tasks first every day—before you check email or voicemail.
3. Set a “daily do” list for yourself of simple core tasks that you can finish (collectively) in 30 minutes or less. That might be checking Facebook to send birthday wishes while you have your coffee, or reviewing the previous day’s to-do list to ensure everything got done.
4. Click the “work offline” button in your email while you go through your inbox. This allows you to focus on clearing out what’s there without getting distracted by new incoming messages. Your replies will queue up in your outbox and be sent as soon as you go back online.
5. Sort your email into three folders: Action, Waiting For, and Reading. “Action” is self-explanatory. Heinz always BCC’s himself on any correspondence with colleagues, vendors, etc., that require a followup, and these go into the “waiting for” folder. And “reading” is for anything that’s not urgent.
6. Use the two-minute rule for email: when something comes in, ask yourself if you can respond to it in two minutes or less, then do so right away.
7. Carry “idea capture” tools at all times. “Mind like water, memory like a sieve,” says Heinz. Many great ideas get lost because we forget them by the time we’re in a place to record them. Obviously, carry pen and paper as often as possible but also use services like Dial2Do or a voice recorder or AquaNotes in the shower. Not every idea is brilliant but at least you won’t lose the ones that are.
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Top image: L4Leadership.com