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Posted By: jbaloun / |
We hope your staffing management business is booming: your days busy, your time invaluable, and your struggle to balance all the important meetings and precious moments of your work day, well, a struggle. But even if you’re not busy 25 hours a day, you can certainly use some extra time to call your own. Here are a few tips to help you boost productivity and efficiency, should save yourself a bit of stress and worry, and just maybe give you that extra hour of time for yourself every day.
TIP #1 : Use Technology Wisely
Though we seem sometimes to be slaves to our technology, it’s good to remember that the reason we have it is to make ourselves more productive And, when you use it wisely, it can work! Rather than checking your email every few minutes, check it at set times, no more than three or four times a day. Use your electronic calendar to remind you when things need to be done. If you use an application like MS Word often, make sure you know how to harness its capabilities. If you need to take a course to use it more fully, do it. It will be a littl e time spent to save lots of time in the future.
TIP #2 : Limit Electronic Distractions
Phones and tablets are key tools in the workplace, but they can also distract. The same can be said of computers. It’s so-o-o easy to stop for a few moments to play a game of Words With Friends or catch up on your Facebook posts. But, oh, how those moments can add up. While on the job, limit the time you soend on personal emails, YouTube videos, and online games. Remember, you’re at work!
TIP #3 : Give Yourself Deadlines
Most of us have trouble finishing ANYTHING without a deadline. But that doesn’t mean you have to wait for the last minute to get things done. Rather than wait for looming final deadlines, do what every good project manager does: set up interim deadlines. By managing your day around these interim deadlines, you can stay on track and get those big things done, maybe even with a little time to spare. here’s where technology can help: use the calendar on your smartphone to set alarms and keep organized.
TIP #4 : Be a Meeting Master
Meetings are important, but not every meeting is so important as to require the time invested in it. Give your work meetings specific time limits. Be strict with not allowing the meeting to go overtime. The other people in the meeting will appreciate it! Try and limit walk-in meetings too. Fifteen minutes is a decent time period for dealing with questions and inquiries. A further way to utilize your time is to combine meetings with breakfast, lunch or dinner.
TIP #5 : Delegate!
If you seem to have too much to do, maybe you should get other people to do some of it. Perhaps you don’t want to appear to be Captain Bligh, but delegating tasks others can do just as well will seriously free up some of your time, enabling you to get other things done. Again organization is key. Making sure you have fairly delegated responsibility between yourself and employees balances the workload and can make the whole office more productive.
TIP #6 : Create Tomorrow’s To-Do List Today
Make sure the last thing you do before leaving work every day is creating a concise list of goals for the next day. We all know circumstances may arise to prevent you from finishing the whole list, but still the list will help you stay focused and disciplined. It’s a great way of prioritizing your tasks and staying on track for deadlines. And finishing it the day befotre gives you a head start on productivity every morning. We know an executive that actually spends a little time every Sunday night setting his goals for the following week. Now THAT’S disiplined organization. You shouldn;t be surprised to know this individual has been the top seller in his national organization for a few years running. By the way, he also has extra time to spend on himself.