It’s the start of a brand-new year. And as an entrepreneur or small business owner, you’re thinking about how to get the most productivity out of your time and space, both for yourself and your team. My Annapolis Office wants to see you succeed, and with this goal in mind we’ve compiled a list of ways to help. Improve your productivity in 2017 with these five tips:
Take advantage of free online productivity tools
In this 2016 Entrepreneur article, Ceren Cubukcu highlights 10 free productivity tools that help you organize your business workflow. A lot of these tools cut down on paperwork and the three bad habits of stashing, stacking and spreading that go along with it. A couple of the top tools that Cubukcu lists are:
- Evernote: It saves your work notes on the cloud in any format. You share your information with anyone you want, and you access the notes from any device you choose.
- Slack: This free messaging app lets you organize work messages in one place. In addition, you can share files, spreadsheets, and images with your office team.
Take short breaks
This is especially important whenever you’re experiencing mental fatigue or when you’re just not feeling creative. Make sure that your break time marks the difference between when you’re “on” and when you’re “off.” With the proper boundaries, your body will know when it’s working and when it’s relaxing. For example, eliminate phone and computer use. And schedule errands for another time so that they don’t cut into your breaks.
In addition, Kate Bartolotta’s Huffington Post article, based on scientific studies, describes how taking frequent breaks is more productive than working a long stretch of time without one. Here are four of the suggestions her article makes:
- Take a break every hour. My Annapolis has a breakroom just for this purpose!
- Allow the break to recharge and revitalize your body (Relax completely).
- Take breaks where you move around physically in order to get your blood circulating. Our office space is beautifully decorated and has a great location, so get out there and take in the sights!
- Even take an actual tea break in the afternoon (or coffee, if you prefer): Preparing and engaging in afternoon tea creates a ritual that forces you to slow down and get into a routine.
Remove clutter from the workspace
This helps clear your mind and feel more organized. Using some of the apps above to automate your workflow eliminates a lot of the paperwork that accumulates around the office. Plus, it reduces the amount of physical filing space needed.
Use the Ivy Lee Method for prioritizing
This 2016 Good Housekeeping article by Heather Finn describes an old- fashioned, hundred-year-old method that many online media sources have been writing about during 2016. It helps you break down a bunch of tasks that may be overwhelming you, and forces you to commit to just a few of them each day:
- Make a list of six items at night that you need to do the following day.
- Start the day off by completing the first item, and don’t do anything else until it’s done.
- Complete the next item on your list, and so on.
- Make another list of six items for the next day.
- If you don’t finish the entire list in one day, just add the uncompleted items to the next day’s list.
Implement ways to cut down on distractions
- Keep the office door closed when you’re unavailable.
- Schedule phone calls from family, friends, and even team members for specific times. This way, you have uninterrupted blocks of time where you can work on a project.
- Get an actual office space. If you are a small business or an entrepreneur in the Annapolis area, you’ll find that My Annapolis Office provides professional office space, complete with conference rooms. Our offices are fully furnished and come with up-to-date telecommunications and data infrastructure.
Starting 2017 off productively will go a long way to making this year successful for you. And My Annapolis Office has the office space and services you need to help make this year great. Contact us today to find out more about officing with us! We can’t wait to help your business grow.