Is productivity just a state of mind?
What about the belief that you must have a high level of motivation in order to be productive?
While having a productive mindset is essential, you can increase productivity by increasing efficiency.
PsychologyToday.com defines productivity as “the ability of an individual, team, or organization to work efficiently within that time in order to maximize output.”
While motivation plays a significant role, it’s only one aspect of total productivity. There are other essential factors. For example, increasing efficiency. The ability to work more efficiently will undoubtedly increase your productivity.
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Improve Efficiency and Productivity
Efficiency can be looked at as the speed with which one can accomplish a task or a group of similar tasks. It’s usually the result of the tools or systems that you use to do those tasks. Let’s take a look at three simple, yet effective, tools you can use to increase efficiency.
Google Calendar
You can sync Google Calendar with an iPhone or Android device and set it up to notify you, in various ways, of upcoming entries in your schedule.
I love the ability to color-code appointments so I immediately know the type of appointment, just by looking at the color of the time block.
You can create a strict or casual schedule – whatever you feel is best for you – and if you tend to be like me who likes a hard copy, you can print off your schedule as well. As with most Google products, you can customize them for your preferences.
Google Calendar keeps me organized and sane. The ability to sync this calendar on all my devices is a life-saver because whether I’m at my computer, on the road, or at an event with my mobile device, I can access my schedule.
Of course, you must make sure that you enter your appointments on your Google Calendar for it to show up for you.
Appointment Scheduler
Do you remember the days when you’d send an email with some suggested dates and times for a meeting
and none of those dates/times would be good for them? They would then send you a message with some alternative dates and times to which you had to respond.
Talk about inefficiency! That was such a waste of time.
With the appointment schedule options available online, you only need to make sure your appointment calendar is updated with the dates and times you’re available, send the link, and the recipient can select a mutually agreed-on date and time.
You can sync most online appointment schedulers with your Google Calendar as well to increase efficiency, giving you more time to focus on increasing productivity.
Online Organizing Tools
There are many online tools to organize your ideas and projects. A favorite of many is Trello.
Trello is a flexible and user-friendly option for organizing your ideas and projects in one area. You can create many boards and different organizations, which is very helpful when you want to start a new project in your business.
A board consists of a 3-column listing of “To Do” “Doing” and “Done” (you can change the names) to which you can add comments, checklists, due dates, and files, and customize them to your needs. You can share a board or organization with other people, allowing you to collaborate with others on a project and see what’s been done, who has done it, and what needs to be done.
Do you have an accountability partner? You can share your task list with your accountability partner so they can check on your progress instead of having to send emails with updates.
Online tools can definitely increase productivity and efficiency. A note of caution though. Each tool comes with a learning curve if you’re starting from scratch. It takes time to learn how to use them efficiently and effectively. Be aware of this and make sure to schedule time that does not take away from the tasks you need to be doing for your business to maintain your high level of productivity.
What online tools do you use in your business to increase productivity and efficiency? Please share in the comments below.
