A very important part of our life we spend working. It is very important that while we are doing it we can be clear about what we have to do, where we keep things, etc. There are many ways to improve productivity at work.
This article outlines a number of steps that will improve productivity in your work, whether it’s office work or home work if it’s telework. If you have any more suggestions that you want to share you can use the feedback tool.
Social media under minimum
Social media isn’t a good idea to have them active. It is best to turn off all notifications on your social media mobile and only access them once or twice a day. Difficult, isn’t it? The Latch app can help you in this regard. It’s like locking your social networks. You close all social media so no one can access them, not even you.
Use Favorites or Labels
A very useful tool in Windows is called Favorites. If there is a folder that you use it is often a good idea to add it to Favorites and in this way when you open a new window you can with one click go directly to that folder.
On macOS systems there are Tags that perform the same function. You can color a folder you use very often and as you tap on a color you go directly to that folder you’ve saved.
Keep the Desktop empty of content
To keep everything tidy and in place it’s a good idea not to be distracted by a Desktop saturated with things. You’re going to say it’s an orderly mess and you know where everything is. I’m afraid to tell you that’s not the case. Sooner or later that folder you have in another folder, saved in one folder, under another folder you use, you won’t have even the remotest idea of what its contents are.
Just keep something on your desk that you’re going to wear during that week. If you are going to use a file upload it to the desktop to be able to handle it. You have to modify a text file or image to send it later. Save it to the desktop and work with it and then when you finish upload it to where it needs to be. You’ll have quick access to it from that place.
When you download something from the internet, put it on your desk. That way you’ll have a shortcut to that document and then move it wherever you want.
Backup to two clouds
Always keep your work or thesis or master’s documents in a cloud service. That way you always know that your work syncs with an external server where your files are.
It’s a good idea to have one primary cloud service and one backup cloud service. Each month or two months you copy the documents from the primary cloud to the other cloud. That way you have the files in duplicate and if a problem happens with one service you can use the other.
Among the most popular cloud services we find:
- 1. Google Drive. Provided by Google. Integrates elements from other Google apps.
- 2. pCloud. Easy to use and intuitive service. Parts of 3 GB but are expanded performing tasks up to a maximum of 10 GB free. You can buy more storage.
- 3. OneDrive. Cloud storage solution provided by Windows.
- 4. Dropbox. Popular cloud service with many features.
Rename files and folders to catalog everything
It’s also a good idea to name things that allow you to just read that name, know what it’s about. It’s not a good idea to put random or number names if you’re not going to know what’s inside that file or folder in the background. If you have multiple clients name the clients with a number and then the customer name and create a folder for each. For example:
Folders and subfolders exist in the image above. The CUSTOMERS folder has 6 different client folders and a folder where if a client unsubscribes we add it to that folder of 0 OLD CUSTOMERS (we add zero to make it the first one we see when opening the folder).
Active customers will have them with their own folder. Then within each client there are in turn folders of actions that you have to perform in your work, such as sending them an analysis document 3 days a week. You also have a FOLLOW folder where you will have all the customer’s communication with you.
There are therefore common actions and specific actions depending on the customer you are working with.
Divide your workday into stripes and your productivity will rise
You may have a job that imposes on you focusing on a topic at one time of the day. It’s a good idea to divide the working time into stripes based on the task you have to perform. For example:
Tools to perform tasks
Another very useful way to improve productivity is to define tasks that you perform over time. Microsoft to do is very useful. You create a task and until you finish it you can’t put it as done. She can choose the day and time when you have to do her and if you don’t get it she’ll make you’re overdue.
Use notes to remember what’s important
Another very useful way to work is to save the important thing in notes. The post-its have served for years to know what you had to do. Nowadays you can continue to use them and you can also use notes that you save in an application. There are many and I recommend Microsft OneNote.
Create a section that has to do with customers, or vendors. And within each section you create pages where you paste relevant information about each section. NEVER save your passwords in these notes. Your productivity can increase if what you actually use is at hand so you can copy and paste at any time.
Copy and paste multiple texts with key combinations
The clipboard is the place where everything you copy is stored and that is housed in the computer’s memory. There are many tools that allow you to copy and paste from various sources. I recommend Phrase Express.
You have to send the same message every Friday to your students or customers. You can rename and then paste using a key combination, whichever you want. The program allows you to create several key combinations.
Let’s give an example. Let’s say there are students who do well in the course and students who don’t do so well. When you send a personal email to each one you can use the combination that appears in HOTKEY. If they go well you use one HOTKEY and if the other goes wrong. The text is similar but not the same and you don’t have to copy it and then paste it countless times. It is stored in PhraseExpress. I talked about this tool How to paste several different texts to optimize tasks.
Summary
Today we are saturated with information. It’s a good idea to be clear and organized everything around us. There are tools that make it easy for us to increase the productivity of our work or personal lives.
This article talks about various ways to improve productivity in your work but you can also apply it to your leisure time. There are many ways to improve productivity, here are some of them.
