Workplace Wisdom - Top 10 Tips to transform your work life
One of the gifts of technology is efficiency; the downside is that it can seem like workflows speed up and incoming work shows up even faster. However, the truth of it is that technology is your servant. When approached and used properly, technology can transform your work life for the better.
Hail Technology’s Benefits
Much like we cannot imagine life without wifi anymore, technology brings us benefits that we may not take the time to acknowledge. Here are a few that you might want to consider in thinking about how to transform your own work life.
Technology allows you to do more in a faster way and with fewer resources needed.
Geographic boundaries no longer constrict you; you can work from any computer that has an internet connection at any time of the day (or night).
Time to market on initiatives and projects is compressed. Everyone concerned can be kept apprised of progress in real time.
With shared access to digital projects, there is a higher engagement amongst colleagues, which can surface and solve potential issues before they escalate. As a result of ‘group-thinking’, the quality of deliverables and other business decisions increases with collaborative insight.
Following are the top ten tips that you can use starting right away to help you enhance your performance through higher productivity practices.
Ten Tips You Can Use
Increase your efficiency, productivity and, therefore, performance by making friends with your technology as follows in these tips.
1. Organize - The number of places you go for information by creating folders as ‘one-stop’ places for tasks and projects. Include such things as project notes, launch milestones, content, images, etc. to easily find everything related to your project.
2. Go direct - Create shortcuts, bookmarks, favorites for the sites you visit most often. Subscribe to RSS feeds to get the latest updates rather than searching for them.
3. Collaborate - Avoid sending attachments via email and, instead, use online collaboration spaces to share content real-time. This also eliminates having to look for different versions of files in various threads.
4. Workflows - Use workflows and assigned tasks to track to-do lists and responsibilities. This ensures systematic and monitored progress on targets and deliverables.
5. Focus - Multi-taskingisaformofdistractionthatinterrupts your productivity. Rather than saving time, tasks take longer and there is a higher probability of making mistakes. Set times to return calls and check email to protect your productivity.
6. Settings - Turn off your pop-up to avoid distractions. Set your profile(s) to an Away status in order to avoid pop-ups and alerts to pay attention to your work without interruption. Remember you do not need to be available at all times because you do need to get work done.
7. Problem-Solve - If you encounter an issue, do not complain about it; instead, either report it or solve it. If you report it to someone else, consider a potential solution that you can offer to jumpstart the resolution process.
8. Security - Keep your passwords in one location, either with an online password service, a document on your desktop or a physical binder within easy reach. This allows you to login to the sites you need in minimum time.
9. Rest - Studies have shown that the adult brain needs to take a break every 90 minutes (or sooner) to operate at maximum capacity. Schedule breaks to re-energize your brain.
10. Self-Care - Engaging with a project deadline can create a time-warp for your body in that your schedule may vary and you may be tempted to eat at your desk. In that case, stop, step away from your computer and have a healthy bite.
If you have other tips on how technology is serving you please leave a comment. And if you are ready to go to the next level in working digitally to improve your work life even more, consider Workspace Factory 3.0. Workspace Factory 3.0 gives digital workers the leading edge in performance by streamlining operations, surfacing opportunities to share expertise, optimizing ‘group-think’ capability for better decisions and more.
