7 Ways To Boost Your Business Productivity During This Back-To-School Season
Back-to-school season is here, and with it comes the opportunity to make a fresh start in your business. It's a great time to get your productivity skills on point, so you can be more effective in your role and get tasks done efficiently, which impacts directly on your business success
The key is to identify what matters most and how you can make lasting changes. Diversifying your skillset by learning new skills, stimulating your creativity, and adding variety to your work, help to optimise your workload and get things done faster.
If you need some inspiration, I've got seven creative productivity approaches that'll help you boost your efficiency this back-to-school season. It could be an eye-opening experience for both you and your business. Start with these ideas today!
As obvious as it sounds, when you're inspired, you're more creative. This gives you the motivation to improve whatever you're doing and find creative solutions to your challenges.
When you get into the work routine, and feel overwhelmed by the workload and pressured with multiple deadlines, it’s normal to feel stuck. We've all been there. You get that feeling that everything is going wrong and it feels like your creativity has run dry.
Make notes on everything that inspires or motivates you throughout the day—and keep them in one place so they're accessible whenever inspiration strikes. Your “inspiration box” can be your go-to place when you need motivation.
This will help you stay on top of your game and make sure you’re at your best!
Communication is one of the most important aspects of the business. There are some simple things you can do today that will help boost your confidence in your communication skills and make you a better communicator for the rest of your life.
If you want to communicate effectively with partners, employees, customers, and other stakeholders, it's time for you to brush up on your communication skills and improve your vocabulary.
When you are able to effectively communicate with others, you can build strong professional relationships and make more informed decisions. Your choice of words and tone of your voice is also fundamental to how you can handle different situations.
Whether you're looking for a new communication skill or polishing an existing one, hiring a coach that can identify your strengths and weaknesses can be massively beneficial. A coach can help you develop the necessary skills based on your needs. Companies like Premier English offer bespoke services for professionals.
Alternatively, you can enrol in some online courses like Effective Business Communication Skills for Professionals.
Getting your day up and running is important, but it's not the end of the world if you don't get it all done. If you're like most people, your day will start with a list of tasks that need to be done—and then it will get crazy from there.
Many of us have a hard time focusing on what matters most because we're too busy doing all kinds of non-essential tasks. It's easy to forget what matters most when you're so busy with the rest of your workday. But you can set yourself up for success by prioritising tasks that produce measurable results and postponing the less essential ones. Also instead of trying to accomplish everything by yourself, you could delegate some tasks to other people on your team.
By prioritising your tasks, you can free up more time for things that really matter—like actually getting work done! Once you have your essential to-do list for the day, the question is where do you start?
Our workdays are full of different tasks, some effective and essential, and some time-wasters which take lots of time and have a low impact on your overall work progress.
Once you prioritise your tasks, what remains at the end of your list, are usually your time-wasters.
Email is an effective workplace communication tool, but it can become a distraction as well. When an email comes in that needs your attention, rather give a short, quick, incomplete answer than keep it in your inbox to do it better later.
The same thing is true about meetings. People waste so much time by just sitting in long and unnecessary meetings that conclude nothing, and don’t contribute to the business's success. Avoid participating in meetings that are not worth your time.
Spend 80% of your time on the main tasks and limit 20% of your time to all the fluff like answering emails, and making phone calls.
Not everyone has the same work schedule or the same natural rhythm. Each person has a particular time of day when they tend to get an extra burst of focus and creativity. For most people, that time is in the morning, as soon as they start work. For others, it could be after lunch or even later during the evening.
You need to understand how your brain works and when you tend to be most productive. Prioritise your tasks in a way to do what requires the most attention and creativity during this time that you have the biggest capacity to get the work done. Early in the day is usually ideal to focus on difficult tasks. As you generally have the least distractions and highest energy. Tackling your hardest task first also sets a positive tone for the rest of your day.
Schedule your day according to your most productive time so that you don’t interrupt your creative flow. If you're like most people, the thought of getting back into the zone after an interruption can feel impossible. So shut off all distractions, and avoid checking your email, phone, or social media until your hardest task of the day is done.
Every day there are new tools and automation that can improve your productivity and make your workflow more efficient.
No matter what your role in the business is, to make your workflow effective and efficient, you need to identify your daily tasks that are repetitive and low-value. Automating these manual tasks can boost your productivity, increase your impact, and help you stay focused on high-value work.
Evaluate your currently used software, hardware, tools, and resources, and examine their effectiveness. Check if you're already making good use of them, and investigate if you can improve them. Automation tools are designed to help you save time and take unnecessary things off your plate, so you can spend time focusing on other more valuable tasks.
If you are like me, then you are your own most severe critique! And that is a great thing because no one like ourselves can analyse and understand why and how we do different tasks.
Every day at the end of your working day, dedicate 10 mins to go through your to-do-list, feel proud of the tasks you’ve accomplished, understand why you couldn’t complete others, and plan for the next day, so the next morning, you already know what you are going to work on.
Do the same every Friday as well. Ask yourself whether you’ve achieved what you wanted to achieve, and could have you achieved the same in a shorter timeframe.
This is a powerful way to feel accountable and determine whether you are really managing your time wisely and if you have room for improvement. Then write down your goals for the next week!
