Kung-Fu Style Office Productivity

There are many people who say email has killed productivity but the truth is we've been able to do a lot more in our day with asynchronous communication like email. Email abuse, like any other tool, can become unproductive so here are some tips to help you own your email efficiency.

1. Send emails TO only 1 person - that's right, if you send an email asking for help, to give instructions, etc to more than 1 person, you have a 10% chance of getting what you want. People will look at everyone on the "TO" line and think to themselves, "oh I'll just let someone else take care of this". Send emails TO just one person, and the amount of follow up you have to do will go down, guaranteed.

2. Keep Inbox Clear - Your inbox should be the place where you keep emails that need to get actioned. The problem is, when you let it stack up, you lose track of what's in your inbox and get overwhelmed by it. For the most part, you should action emails on the same day you receive them. Either reply to them, delete them, or make a note to do something about them in the future. But get them out of your inbox. That will keep you on top of your projects, your communication, and the feeling of being overwhelmed.

3. Send your calendar appointments to others - do you have a meeting with someone? Create a calendar appointment in Outlook, then invite them as a guest. Outlook will send an email to your recipient and add the meeting to their calendar. That helps make sure that both parties know when a meeting is. This can also be used to communicate due dates for projects as well!

4. Set up different email accounts - yes, your email is probably bob@companyname.com but you can most likely get additional accounts created. For example, when you sign up for newsletters, you might want to use bob.newsletters@companyname.com. Then you can tell Microsoft Outlook to only check that account once a day, or once a week! And you can tell outlook to move those emails to another folder completely and never arrive in your inbox. You can use this trick if you have many online admin/management accounts, if you get copied on internal company reports, or if your main account gets too much spam. The goal is to limit your inbox for most of the day to ONLY the emails you must see. Everything that can wait, should wait.

Having great organization is really as important as they say - even if you aren't the smartest or most creative person at your company, being well organized will keep you consistently just as productive as others you work with. It will help you communicate more quickly, update others on project status, and help you finish things on time. Team members like follow through, and bosses like it even more. Let's start with the basics - the 3 biggies of organization:

1. Use a project list or project management software - What you're trying to achieve here is a single location where you list everything that's on your plate. Big projects, small projects, performance review preparation items, meeting action points, commitments to co-workers, etc. Lists like this can feel overwhelming, but used correctly will save you time and help you make sure everything gets done. Here's how - once a week, open your project list which should have *everything* on your plate and review every item next to one another - this will help you pick out the most important and most urgent items. Then start plugging in your calendar with projects that you'll do this week. Then, do them! Going through this process will help you get better at guessing how much work things will take and will also help you better understand and communicate what's possible to get done in a week. You'll know what you can't get done in a week and will give you the chance to communicate it ahead of time, to avoid any surprises.

2. Know What You're Doing The Next Day - Before you leave for the day, take a peek at what you're doing the next day. While you're at home later in the day, you'll subconsciously be preparing for what needs to happen the next day and it will (in most cases) make you more effective. You'll also know the pace you need to work at to get everything done in the day that you need to do. If you don't write down in your calendar what you expect of yourself, you're much less likely to actually do it.

3. Enter Business Cards Immediately - When you get a business card, enter it in the same day. It takes less than a minute and helps keep your contacts up-to-date. This contact database will be very useful when you need to find people in the future!

We do quite a bit of our business over email, text messaging, instant messaging, etc these days but it's still important to use the phone to your advantage and to use it well. Here's how:

1. Introduction - On outgoing call, introduce yourself with a smile and energy to start the call positively. People will generally remember the first 30 seconds and last 30 seconds of a conversation with you - make them stand out.

2. Don't Answer Your Phone - Well, sometimes don't answer your phone. The phone can be just as distracting as email, and sometimes you should let things go to voicemail. Note: If your job is Sales or Customer Service related, you should probably make it a point to be on the phone with people as much as possible.

3. Set Return Call Expectations - On your own voicemail, let people know when they should expect a call back from you. That will prevent the multiple voicemail syndrome.

4. Leave Good Voicemails - When leaving a voicemail, leave your name and number first, then succinctly state the reason for your call. That way when the message is rewound, it's easy to get the most important pieces of information quickly.

5. Incoming Sales Calls - These calls can be great, really! Sales calls help you stay on top of services that are being offered. But be sure the sales person you're talking to knows they have 3 minutes to make their pitch then you have to 'run' to the next meeting that you're already late to.

Meetings are great when several people work together with energy on something. Too often meetings get bogged down by process and the need to have everyone feel included, which kills business productivity. Here's how to avoid this death pit of talking heads:

1. Have an agenda prepared, preferably with time allotted to each item on the agenda. Circulate the agenda several days ahead of time so everyone knows what will be discussed and what they should bring.

2. Make 1 person responsible for timekeeping. That person is going to get you out of that meeting on time, or else...

3. Take action points. Assign 1 person to write down action points with a name of the person responsible for completion and a commitment completion date. That person is also responsible for distributing the action points to the groups afterward so everyone can see who's going to do what.

4. Review action point completion at every meeting (if the meeting is a recurring one). Action points aren't worth much if there's no accountability to get them done. Review your action points, make sure everyone has completed what they said they would.

5. Limit the number of attendees to 3-5 people. If you have more, you have to ask yourself, do I REALLY need this many people involved. Come on, REALLY? Chances are, the answer is 'no' and you're inviting people so they feel included or because you think more people will produce a better solution than fewer people (which is almost never the case).

6. At the end of the meeting, review what went well and what would could change to make future meetings more productive.

1. Use a Headset - Self Serving? Yes! But use one, even if you don't buy from us. You'll also find that it's a huge productivity boost - headsets help increase your office productivity because you can multitask while on the phone (or avoid neck pain if you're already a multitasker), walk around the office, or take calls away from your desk if you choose.

2. Use multiple computer monitors - many computers these days ship ready to plug in 2 monitors. Several years ago, dual monitors was on Bill Gates' top productivity tips for the year. It's cheap and easy to set up, so get in touch with your IT person today and make it happen!

3. Plug in your laptop - When in the office, plug your laptop into a monitor, keyboard and mouse. Laptops get you by in a pinch but you can work much more effectively with a big screen, full-sized keyboard, and easy to use mouse (not the clumsy track pad below your thumb).