How to Streamline Your Workflow and Boost Productivity
Your productivity at work determines your progress. As an entrepreneur, boosting your productivity levels will put you on the fast-track to success. There are plenty of strategies to help you increase your productivity, and you might find implementing all of them somewhat challenging.
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Your productivity at work determines your progress. Whether you’re an entrepreneur or an employee, boosting your productivity levels will put you on the fast-track to success. There are plenty of strategies to help you increase your productivity, and you might find implementing all of them somewhat challenging.
It’s best to take a steady, consistent approach to improve your efficiency. One of the best strategies to start with when enhancing your productivity levels is through streamlining your workflow. By taking a systemic approach to your work, you get more done in less time, allowing you to take on new responsibilities.
Let’s look at 10-ways you can streamline your workflow and boost your productivity.
- Meditate for 5-Minutes
- Structure Your Day
- Organize Your Desk
- Tackle Priority’s First
- Don’t Multitask
- Communicate with Your Team
- Promote a Transparent Environment
- Practice the Pomodoro Principle
- Motivate the Office
- Use Technology
Meditate for 5-Minutes
Before you start the workday, you need to clear your mind. If you’re dealing with personal issues or you have other thoughts rumbling around in your head, it reduces your ability to focus.
By taking 5-minutes to center yourself at the beginning of the day, you help your mind concentrate on the tasks ahead with greater intensity. As a result, you move through your workflow faster, achieving more with your time.
Download a meditation app and find a quiet space in the office, or inside your car. Go through the meditation, and you’ll find it makes a tremendous difference in your day.
I have used a lot of different meditation apps but I highly suggest Headspace and Aura. Headspace has a paid monthly subscription but they provide an amazing free crash course to getting started in meditation. Aura has a great community with a wide variety of meditation courses to match your every mood. Aura currently has a lifetime deal on StackSocial for $79.99.
Structure Your Day
Before you start the workday, you need to clear your mind. If you’re dealing with personal issues or you have other thoughts rumbling around in your head, it reduces your ability to focus.
By taking 5-minutes to center yourself at the beginning of the day, you help your mind concentrate on the tasks ahead with greater intensity. As a result, you move through your workflow faster, achieving more with your time.
Download a meditation app and find a quiet space in the office, or inside your car. Go through the meditation, and you’ll find it makes a tremendous difference in your day.
I have used a lot of different meditation apps but I highly suggest Headspace and Aura. Headspace has a paid monthly subscription but they provide an amazing free crash course to getting started in meditation. Aura has a great community with a wide variety of meditation courses to match your every mood. Aura currently has a lifetime deal on StackSocial for $79.99.
Organize Your Desk
Take a good look at your desk. Is it a mess? The chances are that you have paperwork strewn across it in random piles, and if you try to find your stapler right now, it’ll take you 5-minutes before you locate it amongst the mess in your desk drawers.
Start every day by getting organized. Your desk is a reflection of your mind. When it’s messy and disorganized, it’s like a reflection of your character. A neat, organized workspace shows that you have everything under control.
I, personally, try to keep a minimalist set up. I have definitely noticed the difference in my productivity after rearranging my desk. While you do not have to be a minimalist to have a clean and organized desk, it definitely helps!
Tackle Priority’s First
Schedule your priorities first thing in the morning. If you arrive at work at 9 am, take 30 to 45-minutes to meditate, organize your desk, and prepare your schedule for the day. After the preparation phase, launch into your toughest tasks and meeting first thing.
This strategy helps you take on the biggest challenges early in the day when your mind is still fresh. Trying to deal with a crucial budget meeting at 3 pm will have everyone’s thoughts on walking out the door, rather than the task at hand.
I am currently using Todoist and Things to organize my to-do lists. You don’t need to use both of these apps, but I use it to differentiate my companies (my digital marketing agency, my SaaS launchpad company and my personal brand). I have my Google Calendar and my Apple Calendar both synced to my Todoist and Things.
Don’t Multitask
I know a lot of people talk about the importance of multitasking and think multitasking is a strong beneficial skill to have, but after years of experience as a self-proclaimed “great multitasker”, I’ve realized that this is not a good thing. I have noticed I am less productive and my quality of work drops significantly.
Many people make the mistake of multitasking throughout the workday. Trying to balance two or more things at once will end up in disaster. Spreading your attention thin will result in your making mistakes and missing details. While it’s great to be able to multitask from a managerial point of view, once you are actually working on tasks, you should be focusing on the one task at hand.
Learn to manage your time effectively before you start committing to projects that you don’t have the time to run effectively. Stretching yourself too thin reduces your performance, and your boss or clients will begin to notice.
Communicate with Your Team
In the digital age, communications are key to the success of any organization. The advent of the internet changed everything, and now cellphones make it possible to keep in touch with friends and family at any time of the day.
While messaging systems like WhatsApp groups can be beneficial in project management and communications for teams, programs like “Basecamp” or “Slack,” are far more effective. With Basecamp, you can coordinate project tasks, update status, and ensure that your team is on the same page.
Keep your business and your personal life separate. By utilizing an app like Slack, you can respect your employees or clients’ private life and keep business communications on a separate channel.
Promote a Transparent Environment
Promoting a transparent environment in the workplace is critical if you’re in charge of a team. If your employees have too much on their agenda, then they need to think that they can approach you with their concerns.
Leaving one team member with too many responsibilities might derail your timeline and project milestones. Make sure that your employees can approach you with any problems they’re facing with their workflow.
Practice the Pomodoro Principle
Do you find yourself burning out on projects? Concentration is a learned skill, and many people find that they battle holding their focus for extended periods. To improve your efficiency and effectiveness at work, practice the Pomodoro Principle.
Set a timer on your phone for 25-minutes. Work with your full focus until the alarm sounds, and then take a 5-minute break. During the break, have a stretch or make a cup of tea to get your mind off work.
After the 5-minute break ends, get back to another 25-minute work session. Rinse and repeat. You’ll find this helps your mental stamina throughout the workday.
You can use the Pomodoro technique manually but there are a handful of apps out there that can help you utilize Pomodoro. I am currently using PomoDone App because it integrates with my Todoist and I can go through my to-do list one at time with my Pomodor timer.
Motivate the Office
Every employee wants to work in an environment that happy, healthy, and supportive of their personal growth. Build relationships with your employees by implementing some fun in the office from time to time.
Make sure to provide a positive workplace with good vibes. Celebrate people’s birthdays and company achievements in the office with incentives like gift cards and prizes. Track all of your employee’s birthdays on your calendar, and show them that you care.
If you are a freelancer or work alone, make sure you take care of your health and family first. As important as work can be, there’s nothing more important than your mental and physical health – and you won’t be able to work if you’re constantly stressed and not taking care of your body anyway.
Use Technology
There are numerous apps and software that you can use to improve your workflow and productivity at the office. Look for areas of your work where you find yourself doing repetitive tasks. Search online for software automation solutions to help you improve your efficiency.
Automated sales funnels, customer relationship management tools (CRM), and other variou SaaS tools can help speed things up, reducing the time you spend on repetitive tasks, allowing you to do more with your time.
If you think I missed out on anything, please let me know in the comments. Let me know if you have any great productivity hacks that have worked for you!
