To be or not to be ....... productive

Well, I’ve been tagged by Brian over at Snacks and Staff Meetings about my best productivity tips. It’s taken me a while to get to this one so maybe my tips aren’t really that effective. But, I’ll throw them out there and you can see if they might work for you.

Tip #1 - Find an all-in-one organizer and stick with it. This took me some time but I really like the Zoho planner and now it stays open on my laptop all the time. I just like how it works. Now, when I am not able to access it, which sometimes happens, I use simpleDays 3.1. I have learned to organize my items and deal with them right away. That has been my key to productivity. Like Brian, I try to deal with whatever is going on right away. So, I plan my day and give myself time in the morning to do different “office” items before the day begins. I then return my first set of emails, add to my phone call list and eliminate the things I have finished. I have one section for tomorrow and this week. Beyond that, I add it to the calendar with a reminder. That way it is not sitting around for too long and I can focus on what needs to be done.

Tip#2 - I’ve learned to use my computer to reduce my workload. I add to my contacts, use phone lists, mail lists and other such items. My RSS produces a plethora of things to read - I pick 10 to read and respond to each day and copy the URL’s into my Notebook (Zoho again) and access them at different times during the day. I read and then quickly respond. Once the RSS has been read, I mark them “ALL READ” and move on.

Tip#3 - I use my wikis for planning and communicating with people. This way, I can access them from anywhere. I have also had the staff begin using a wiki to communicate various things so that things are not coming as a surprise. We are slowly getting better at this which has information disseminating at a quicker rate.

Well that’s my three tips. I hope they help someone. My next step is to purchase a PDA to sync with my laptop to keep my days and meetings with me so I don’t end up double-booking myself. Maybe next Father’s Day!